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THROUGH THE 
SOUTH AND WEST • 

WITH THE PRESIDENT. 



The Mail and Hxpress Quarterly. 

NUMBER ONE. 
PRICE 25 CENTS PER COPY. 

ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR. 



Published by 

The Mail and Express 

The Leading Evening Paper, 
NEW YORK. 



JUNE, 1891 



Through the South and West 
With the President. 



April 14— May 15, 1891. 



M 



The only Complete and Authorized Collection of 

PRESIDENT HARRISON'S GREAT and ELOQUENT SPEECHES 

Made During the Tour. 



JIJN 29 1891 

JOHN S. SHRIX^^^^; 

Of the Mail and Express. 



Published by 

The Mail and Express 

The Leading Evening Paper. 
NEW YORK. 

1 8g I . 



H3 




JEntered at Post-office, New York City, as second-class matter 



Copyright, 
N. Y. Mail and Express. 

1891. 



INDEX. 
THE PRESIDENT'S SPEECHES. 



PAGE 

April 14. . Roanoke, Va 3 

" Bristol, Tenn 4 

" Johnson City, Tenn 5 

' ' Jonesboro, " .... 7 

" Greenboro, " .,,, 8 

" Morristown, " 9 

" Knoxville " 10 

SEVEN SPEECHES. 



April 15. .Chattanooga, Tenn 11 

" Cartersville, Ga 13 

Atlanta, Ga 13 

THREE SPEECHES. 



April 16. . Atlanta, Ga 14 

' ' Tallapoosa, Ga 15 

" Anniston, Ala 16 

Pell City, Ala 18 

" Birmingham, Ala., at depot 18 

" " " to Citizens 21 

" " " to Colored People 22 

SEVEN SPEECHES. 

April 17. .Memphis, Tenn. . 22 

Little Rock, Ark 24 

TWO SPEECHES. 



April 18. .Texarkana, Ark 25 

" Palestine, Texas 26 

" Houston, " 27 

" Galveston, *' 28 

FOUR SPEECHES. 



Vlll INDEX. 

PAGE 

April iq. .Sunday. No speeches. 

April 20. . San Antonio, Texas. 35, 

ONE SPEFXH. 



April 21. .Del Rio, Texas 38 

" El Paso " 39 

On the New Mexico Plains 40 

" Deming, New Mexico 41 

" Lordsburg, " 42 

" Tucson, Arizona 42. 

SIX SPEECHES. 



April 22. . Indio, California 43 

" Colton, " 44 

Ontario, " 45 

" Banning, " 46 

" Pomona, " 46 

" Los Angeles, California, to the Citizens 47 

" " " •' at the Pavilion 48 

SEVEN SPEECHES. 

-•Vpril 23. .San Diego, California, to the Indiana Residents 49 

Speech to the Citizens 49 

Reply to Governor Torres 51 

51 

52 

52 

53 

54 



Santa Ana, 

Orange, 

Riverside, 

San Bernardino, 

Pasadena. 



EIGHT SPEECHES. 



April 24. . San Fernando, California 55 

" Santa Paula, " 55 

" San Buena Ventura, California 56 

'* Santa Barbara, '' 57 

FOUR SPEECHES. 

April 25. .Bakersfield, California 58 

" Tulare, " 59 

' ' Fresno, " 60 

" Merced, " 61 

*' Modesto, " 62 

" Lathrop, " 63 

" San Francisco, " 64 

SEVEN SPEECHES, 



INDEX. IX 

page: 
April 26. . Sunday, No speeches. 

April 27 and 28. No speeches 66 

April 29. . Redwood, California 66 

" San Jose, " 66 

" Gilroy, " 67 

" Pajaro, " 68 

FOUR SPEECHES. 

April 30. . Monterey 68 

ONE SPEECH. 

May I . . Santa Cruz, California 70 

Los Gatos, " 70 

San Francisco, " Chamber of Commerce 71 

G. A. R. May Day Festival 73 

Banquet 75 

FIVE SPEECHES. 

May 2. . Sacramento, California 78 

" Benicia, " 8c 

" West Berkeley, '* State University 80 

" " " " Blind, Deaf and Dumb Asylum. .. . 80 

Oakland, " 81 

" San Francisco, " Union League Club 82 

SIX SPEECHES. 



May 3. .Sunday. Card of Farewell to San Francisco 83 

May 4.. Red Bluff, California 83 

" Redding, " . 84 

" Dinsmuir, " 85 

" Sisson, " 85 

" Ashland, Oregon, to Legislative Committee 86 

" " to Citizens 86 

Medford, " 87 

SEVEN SPEECHES. 



May 5. .Albany, Oregon 87 

Salem, " 88 

' ' Chemawa, ' ' Indian School 90 

" Oregon City, Oregon 91 

" Portland, " 91 

FIVE SPEECHES. 



May 6. .Centralia, Washington 94 



INDEX. 



May 6 . . Tacoma, Washington 95 



Puget Sound, 
Seattle, 

Puyallup, 
Chehalis, 



on Boat to Mayor of Seattle 96 

at Stand 97 

at Train 99 

99 

99 

SEVEN SPEECHES. 



May 7. .Cascade Rocks, Oregon 100 

" Hood River Station, Oregon 100 

" The Dalles, " 100 

Pendleton, " 102 

" Le Grand, * 103 

Baker City, " 104 

SIX SPEECHES. 



May 8 . . Boise City, Idaho 105 

Pocatello, " 107 

TWO SPEECHES. 



May 9. .Salt Lake City, Utah, at Stand 108 

" " " " " Chamber of Commerce no 

" " " " " to School Children in 

" Lehi, " Sugar Factory in 

Provo, " 112 

' ' American Fork, " 113 

Castle Gate, " 113 

Springville, " 113 

EIGHT SPEECHES. 



May 10. .Glenwood Springs, Colorado, Sunday-School Convention.. 114 

ONE SPEECH. 

May II . . Leadville, Colorado 117 

" Buena Vista, " 118 

Salida, " 119 

" Canon City, " 120 

" Florence, " 121 

Pueblo, " . 122 

" Colorado Springs, Colorado, at Garfield School 123 

" " " " to Citizens 124 

EIGHT SPEECHES. 



May 12. .Denver, Colorado, at Stand. 



INDEX. 



XI 



May 12. .Denver, Colorado, at Luncheon, 
" Akron, " 



May 13. 



May 14. 



THREE SPEECHES. 



Hastings, Nebraska 

Fairmount, 

Crete, 

Lincoln, 

Valparaiso, 

Omaha, 



Council Bluffs, 
Shenandoah, " 

Marysville, Missouri 



at Stand 

School Children. 
Iowa 



TEN SPEECHES. 



Hannibal, Missouri 

Springfield, Illinois, at Lincoln's Tomb. 

" at State House 

Decatur, " 

Tuscola, " 

Chrisman, " , 

Montezuma, Indiana 

Indianapolis, " 

Richmond, " 

Dayton, Ohio 

Xenia, " 

Columbus, Ohio 



[28 
[29 



129 
131 
131 
132 
132 

133 
136 
136 
137 
137 



137 
138 
140 
141 
141 
142 

143 
144 
146 

147 
14S 
148 



TWELVE SPEECHES. 



May i5..Altoona, Pennsylvania. 
" Harrisburg, " 
" Farewell on Train 



149 
150 



THREE SPEECHES. 



INTRODUCTION 



The Mail and Express takes pleasure in pre- 
senting to the public, for the first time, the only 
complete collection of speeches delivered by President 
Harrison, on his recent remarkable tour throuoh the 
South to the Pacific coast and home again through 
the new States admitted during his administration. 
The journey was a wonderful one in more than one 
respect. It covered over ten thousand miles and was 
made without accident or mishap of any kind. So 
complete were the arrangements in detail that the 
train carrying the Presidential party was always on 
time, and was never once obliged to stop for repairs. 

Country of all sorts was traversed, all kinds and 
conditions of mankind seen, and every variety of 
weather encountered. Still nothing hindered the 
party from keeping every engagement. The train left 
Washington, D.C., at 12.1 5 o'clock, Tuesday morning, 
April 14, and returned to the National Capital at 5.30 
o'clock, Friday afternoon, May t5. 



INTRODUCTION. 



During this time the - President made 142 
speeches. These included many addresses of several 
thousand words each, and a number of smaller in- 
formal talks with the people who gathered around his 
train when it stopped at towns and villages. The 
President's remarkable faculty for making speeches 
was shown on this trip in the most delightful manner. 
From his first speech to his last one — delivered on 
the train nearing Washington — people eagerly heard 
or read all he said. Each speech is a model for 
diction, patriotism and appropriateness. The Presi- 
dent had very little time for elaborate preparation, 
because he was busy nearly all the time in receiving 
committees and entertaining them, before reaching 
the various cities from which they came. He was 
called upon at most unexpected times to address 
crowds at various towns waiting to greet him. He 
was always ready, and always said something ap- 
propriate to the place, the country and the people. 
Each speech caused a great amount of enthu- 
siasm, for the President said just enough not to 
tire the people, but to make them wish for more. 

All the speeches were taken in shorthand by 
Mr. E. F. Tibbott, the President's stenographer, but 
many were delivered so late at night or so early 
in the morning that they escaped publication in 
the newspapers. The Mail and Express now, for 



INTRODUCTION. XV 

the first time, Is enabled to present every single 
speech made by the President on his trip. It is 
enabled to do so because The Mail and Express 
is the only paper in the country that had its 
own correspondent on the tour. Mr. John S. Shriver, 
the Washington correspondent of The Mail and 
Express, left Washington twelve hours ahead of 
the President and went over the entire route. He 
welcomed the party to the cities visited, and left just 
in time to make the next place ahead of the party. 
Thus The Mail and Express is enabled in this book 
to give an accurate and correct account of the recep- 
tion at each city, as well as the speeches. During 
the tour The Mail and Express published nearly all of 
the speeches ; these have been corrected and added to 
by the official notes taken on the tour. Thus an abso- 
lute and correct series of speeches is here given for the 
first time. At nearly every place visited Postmaster- 
General Wanamaker and Secretary of Agriculture 
Rusk were called upon and made speeches. No 
official notes of these, however, were taken, and The 
Mail and Express greatly regrets that it cannot also 
publish these eloquent addresses made on the tour by 
these popular members of the Cabinet. Mr. Wana- 
maker's speeches especially were full of interest and 
instruction. His addresses to the postal officials and 
Sunday- School scholars, in various large cities, were 



INTRODUCTION. 



worthy of preservation, and were always greeted with 
enthusiasm. 

The Presidential party consisted of the President 
and Mrs. Harrison, Postmaster-General Wanamaker, 
.Secretary J. M. Rusk, Mr. and Mrs. Russell Harrison, 
Mrs. McKee, Mrs. Dimmick, Daniel M. Ransdell, 
United States Marshal of the District of Columbia. 
Major Sanger, the President's military aid, Mr. and 
Mrs. George W. Boyd (Mr. Boyd, General Assistant 
Passenger Agent of the Pennsylvania Railroad and in 
charge of the train), Mr. E. F. Tibbott, the President's 
stenographer, Alfred J. Clark, O. P. Austin, and R. V. 
Oulahan. 



THE PRESIDENT'S SPEECHES 



FROM 



APRIL 14th TO MAY 15th, 
1891. 



The Mail and Express 

The lycading Evening Paper. 

NEW YORK. 

1891. 



APRIL 14— ROANOKE, VA. 

The President left Washington shortly after midnight, April 
14, and after a good night's rest was up soon after 6 o'clock. 
Although he passed through Iv3^nchburg at 7 o'clock his first 
speech was not made until he reached P^oanoke. It was then 
nearh' 9 o'clock. The crowd at the depot was tremendous and the 
President was in excellent humor. He made his first speech 
from the train and spoke as follows : 

A SPLENDID TRIBUTE TO VIRGINIA. 

My Fellow Citizens : I desire to thank you very sincerely 
for this friendly greeting. The State of Virginia is entitled, I 
think, to high estimation among the States for its great history — 
for the contribution it has made to the great story of our com- 
mon country. This fact you discovered, I think, long ago. For 
personal reasons I have great affection for Virginia. It is the 
State of my fathers. I am glad this morning to congratulate you 
upon the marvelous development which has come, and the greater 
which is coming, to your commonwealth. 

You not only have an illustrious story behind you, but before 
you prospects of development in wealth and prosperity, in all that 
makes a great State, such as never entered into the imagination of 
those who laid the foundation of the commonwealth. [Cheers.] 
You are arousing now to a realization of the benefits of diversity of 
industries. 

In the olden time Virginia was a plantation State. I hope she 
may never cease to have large agricultural interests. It is the 
foundation of stable society, but I rejoice with you that she has 
added to agriculture the mining of coal and iron, and, bringing these 
from their beds, is producing all the products that enter into the 
uses of life. 

In this is the secret of that great growth illustrating what I see 
about me here, and the promise of a future which none of us can 
fully realize. In all of these things we have a common interest, and 
I beg to assure you that in everything that tends to the social order 
of your people, and the development and increased prosperity of 
the State of Virginia, I am in most hearty sympathy with you all. 
[Cheers.] 



BRISTOL, TENN. 

It was after 2 o'clock when the President arrived at Bristol, 
Tenn., and the President made his second speech. He was met 
by a committee and escorted from the train to a large bluff over- 
looking the cit}'. Gathered all about him was a great crowd. 
The speech was quite a long one and caused a great amount of 
enthusiasm. He said : 

NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN OLD PLACES. 

My Fellow Citizens : I have found not only pleasure but 
instruction in riding to-day through a portion of the State of Virginia 
that is feeling in a very striking way the impulse of a new development. 
It is extremely gratifying to notice that those hidden sources of 
wealth which were so long unobserved and so long unused are now 
being found, and that these regions, once so retired, occupied by a 
pastoral people, having difficult access to the centres of population, 
are now being rapidly transformed into busy manufacturing and 
commercial centres. 

In the early settlement of this city the emigrants poured over 
the Alleghanies and the Blue Ridge like waters over an obstructing 
ledge, seeking the fertile and attractive farm regions of the great 
West. They passed unobserved these marvelous hidden stores of 
wealth which are now being brought into use. Having filled 
those great basins of the West, they are now turning back to Virginia 
and West Virginia and Tennessee to bring about a development and 
production for which the time is ripe, and which will surprise the 
world. [Cheers.] 

It has not been long since every implement of iron, domestic, 
agricultural and mechanical, was made in other States. The iron 
point of the wooden mold-board plow, with which the early farmers 
here turned the soil, came from distant States. But now Virginia 
and Tennessee are stirring their energies, to participate in a large 
degree in mechanical productions, and in the great awakening of 
American influence which will lift the nation to a place among the 
nations of the world never before attained. [Cheers.] 

What hinders us, secure in the market of our own great popula- 
tion, from successful competition in the markets of the world ? 
What hinders our people, possessing every element of material 
wealth and endowed with inventive genius and energy unsurpassed, 



from having again upon the seas a merchant marine flying the flag 
of our country and carrying its commerce into every sea and every 
port ? 

I am glad to stand for this moment among you, glad to ex- 
press my sympathy with you in every enterprise that tends to 
develop your State and local communities; glad to stand with you 
upon the one common platform of respect to the Constitution and 
the law, differing in our policies as to what the law should be, but 
pledged with a common devotion and obedience to law as the 
majority shall by their expressions make it. 

I shall carry away from here a new impulse to public duty, a 
new inspiration as a citizen with you of a country whose greatness is 
only dawning. And may I now express the pleasure I shall have in 
every good that comes to you as a community and to each of you 
as individuals ? May peace, prosperity and social order dwell in your 
communities and the fear and love of God in every home ! [Cheers.] 



JOHNSON CITY, TENN. 

Over 3000 people, including many Grand Army veterans, 
awaited the arrival of the President at Johnson City, Tenn. The 
stop was very short, and nearly the entire time was consumed by 
the President in his talk. The speech w^as full of patriotism, and 
caused great enthusiasm among the old soldiers. He spoke as 
follows : 

THE SERVANT OF ALL THE PEOPLE. 

My Fellow Citizens : The office of President of the United 
States is one of very high honor and is also one of very high respon- 
sibility. No man having conscientiously at heart the good of the 
whole people, whose interests are, under the law, in some degree 
committed to his care, can fail to feel a most oppressive sense of 
inadequacy when he comes to the discharge of these high functions. 

Elected under a system of government which gives to the 
majority of our people, who have expressed their wishes through 
constitutional methods, the right to choose their public servants, 
when he has taken the oath that inducts him into office he becomes 
the servant of all the people, and while he may pursue the advocacy 
of those measures to which the people have given their approval by 
his choice, he should always act and speak with a reserve and a 



respect for the opinion of others that shall not alienate from him the 
good will of his fellow citizens, without regard to political belief. 

I shall not speak of what has been done, but I have a supreme 
regard for the honor of the nation, a profound respect for the Con- 
stitution, and a most sincere desire to meet the just expectations of 
my fellow citizens. I am not one of those who believe that the good 
of any class can be permanenily and largely attained except upon 
lines which promote the good of all our people. 

BLESSINGS OF A RESTORED UNION. 

I rejoice in the union of the States. I rejoice to stand here in 
East Tennessee among a people who so conspicuously and at such 
sacrifice during the hour of the nation's peril stood by the flag and 
adhered to their convictions of public duty [cheers], and I am 
especially glad to be able to say that those who, following other 
views of duty, took sides against us in that struggle, without division 
in voice or heart to-day praise Almighty God that He preserved us 
one nation. [Cheers.] 

There is no man, whatever his views upon the questions that 
then divided us, but in view of the marvelous benefits which are 
disseminating themselves over these States, must also bless God to- 
day that slavery no longer exists and that the Union of free States 
is indissoluble. [Cheers.] 

What is it that has stirred the public of this great region, that 
has kindled these furnace fires, that has converted these retired and 
isolated farms upon which you and your ancestors dwelt into 
centres of trade and mechanical pursuits, bringing a market close to 
the door of the farmer and bringing prosperity into every home ? It 
is that we have no line of division between the States; it is that these 
impulses of freedom and enterprise, once limited in their operations, 
are now common in all the States. We have a common heritage. 
The confederate soldier has a full, honorable and ungrudged partici- 
pation in all the benefits of a great and just government. [Cheers.] 

I do not doubt to-day that these would be among the readiest 
of our population to follow the old flag if it should be assailed from 
any quarter. [Cheers.] 

Now, my fellow countrymen, I can pause but a moment with 
you. It does me good to look into your faces, to receive these 
evidences of your good will. I hope I may have guidance and 
courage in such time as remains to me in public life conscientiously 
to serve the public good and the common glory of our beloved 
country. [Great cheering.] 



JONESBORO, TENN. 

Jonesboro, Tenn., was honored by ten minutes' stop of 
the train. From the rear platform the President greeted the 
crowd that awaited his arrival. Although time was short the 
President managed to say a great manj^ good things in the 
time allowed to him. Dipping into the past with his remark- 
able facility for saying appropriate things, the result was the 
following speech: 

OLD THINGS HAVE PASSED AWAY. 

My Fellow Citizens : We tarry but a moment at this ancient 
and interesting city, whose story goes back, I think, to the establish- 
ment of the State of Frankhn, of which perhaps not all of you, 
certainly not these little ones, ever heard, which John Sevier attempted 
to set up as an independent commonwealth. 

But yet it is not of antiquity that I desire to speak, for ancient 
history is not of the greatest interest to you now. The Scripture 
speaks, I think — my Postmaster-General is near, and if I fall into 
error will correct me [laughter] — of a time when the old things shall 
pass away and all things shall become new. Tennessee is realizing 
that beatitude ; the old things, the old way of doing things, the 
stiff clay and steep mountain roads have passed away and the steam 
car has come. 

The old times of isolation in these valleys when these pioneers, 
some of whom I see, made their frontier homes, have passed away, 
and influences from the outside have come, life has been made easier 
to men and easier to the toiling women who used to carry the water 
from the spring at the bottom of the hill in a piggin, but who now by 
modern appliances have it brought into the ki,tchen. 

You have come to know now that not only the surface of the soil 
has wealth in it, but that under the surface there are vast sources of 
wealth to gladden the homes of your people and to bring with new 
industries a thrifty population. But of all these old things that have 
passed away and the new ones that have come, I am sure you are 
exultantly glad in this region, where there was so much martyrdom for 
the flag, so much exile, so much suffering, that the one Union, the one 
Constitution and the one flag might be preserved, to know that those 
old strifes have passed away, and that a period of fraternity has come 
when all men are for the flag and all for the Constitution, when it has 



been forever put out of the minds of all people that this Union can 
be dissolved or this Constitution overthrown. [Great cheering.] 

On all these new things I congratulate the citizens of Tennessee. 
Turn your faces to the morning, for the sun is lightening the hill-tops; 
there is coming to our country a great growth, an extraordinary 
development, and you are to be full participants in it all. While 
other nations of the world have reached a climax in their home 
development, and are struggling to parcel out remote regions of the 
earth that their commerce may be extended, we have here prodigious 
resources that are yet to be touched by the finger of development; 
and we have the power, if we will, to put our flag again on the ses 
and to share in the world's commerce. [Cheers.] 

GREENBORO, TENN. 

The next stop was made at Greenboro, Tenn., once the 
home of Andrew Jackson. There was a goodly crowd at the 
depot, and the President made one of his most clever and 
taking speeches to the assemblage. It was as follows : 

ONE FLAG, ONE CONSTITUTION. 

My Fellow Citizens : The arrangements for our journey will not 
permit me to tarry with you long. I thank you most sincerely for 
this cordial demonstration. I rejoice to see in the hands of the 
children here that banner of glor}^ which is the symbol of our great- 
ness and the promise of our security. 

I am glad that by the common consent of all our people, without 
any regard to past differences, we have once and forever struck hands 
upon the proposition that from the lakes to the gulf, from the St. 
Lawrence to the Bay of California, there shall be one flag and one 
Constitution. [Great cheering.] The story^ that it brings to us from 
the time of its adoption as our national emblem is one in which we 
may all find instruction and inspiration. It is the flag of the free. 

It symbolizes a government most aptly expressed by the greatest 
statesman of the people, Abraham Lincoln, to be " a government of 
the people, by the people, and for the people" — a government that 
spreads a sky of hope above the head of every child ; that has abol- 
ished all class distinctions and has opened all places of eminence and 
usefulness in the state and in commerce to the ambitious and ener- 
getic young man. 

This city has given to the country a conspicuous illustration in 



your distinguished former fellow citizen, Andrew Johnson, of what 
free institutions may do, and what an aspiring young man may do 
against all adverse conditions in life. To every one perfect freedom 
is guaranteed within the limits of due respect to the rights of others. 
Thanking you again for this presence and friendly greeting, I bid you 
good-bye. 

MORRISTOWN, TENN. 

Although the President was only down for t^vo or three 
stops in East Tennessee, it seemed as if every place of any impor- 
tance insisted upon his stopping. Morristown had a brief stop, 
and being called to the rear platform of his car by the enthu- 
siasm of the crowd, the President spoke as follows : 

LIBERTY IN THE MOUNTAINS. 

My Fellow Citizens : It will not be possible for me to speak to 
you for more than a moment, and yet I cannot refuse, in justice to 
my own feelings, to express my deep appreciation of your cordial 
reception. I visit to-day for the first time East Tennessee, but it is a 
region in which I have always felt a profound interest and for whose 
people I have always entertained a most sincere respect. 

It seems to be true in the history of man that those who are 
called to dwell among mountain peaks in regions where the convul- 
sions of nature have lifted the rocks toward the sky, have always 
been characterized by a personal independence of character, by a 
devotion to liberty and by courage in defence of their rights and 
their homes. The legends that cluster about the mountain peaks of 
Scotland and the patriotic devotion that makes memorable the passes 
of Switzerland have been repeated in the mountains of East Ten- 
nessee. 

In those periods of great struggles, when communications were 
difficult and often interrupted, the hearts of the people of Indiana 
went out to the beleaguered friends of the Union beyond the Cumber- 
land Gap. I am glad to know that it is no longer difficult to reach 
you for succor or for friendly social intercourse, for travel has been 
quickened and made easy. Some one mentioned just now that it was 
only four hours and a half from Chattanooga to Atlanta. That is not 
my recollection [laughter] ; I think we spent as many months making 
that trip. [Laughter.] 

I am glad to know that now, by the consent of all your people, 



lO 

without regard to the differences that separated you then, your high- 
ways are open to all of us, without prejudice; that your hearts are true 
to the Union and the Constitution, and that the high sense of public 
duty which then characterized you still abides among your people. 
May your valleys be always full of prosperity, your homes the abode 
of affection and love, and of all that makes the American home the 
best of all homes and the sure nursery of good citizens. [Cheers.] 

KNOXVILLE, TENN. 

At last, at six o'clock, amid the booming of cannon and shout- 
ing of people, the train rolled into Knoxville, where the President 
was to rest for his first night out. After a short tour through the 
city he was driven to the Hattie House, where a reception was 
held. In respoUvSe to the address of welcome President Harrison, 
said : 

LOYAL EAbT TENNESSEE. 

My Fellow Citizens : It gives me pleasure to visit this historical 
city — a city that has given to the country many men who have been 
eminent in its councils and brought to the nation they served and to 
the people who called them into the public service great honor. I am 
glad to visit East Tennessee, the scene of that early immigration and 
of those early struggles of men who, for vigor of intellect, strength of 
heart and devotion to republican principles, were among the most con- 
spicuous of the early pioneers of the West and Southwest. 

i am glad to know that that deep devotion to the cause of the 
Union which manifested itself in the early contributions of Tennessee 
to the armies that went to the defense of the homes of the Northwest 
abides still in these valleys and crowns with its glory and lustre every 
hill-top of the AUeghanies. You are feeling now a material develop- 
ment that is interesting and pleasing to all your fellow citizens of the 
States. 

I beg to say to you that whoever supposes that there is anywhere 
in the Northern States any jealousy of this great material progress 
which the South is making wholly misconceives the friendly heart of 
the people of the North. It is my wish, as I am sure it is the wish of 
all with whom I associate in political life, that the streams of pros- 
perity in the South may run bankful ; that in everything that promotes 
the prosperity of the State, the security and comfort of the com- 
munity and the happiness of the individual home, your blessings may 
be full and unstinted. 



THE SUPREMACY OF LAW. 

We live in a government of law. The compact of our organiza- 
tion is that a majority of our people, taking those methods which are 
prescribed by the Constitution and law, shall determine our public 
policies and choose our rulers. It is our solemn compact ; it cannot 
safely be broken. We may safely differ about policies ; we may safely 
divide upon the question as to what shall be the law ; but when the 
law is once enacted no community can safely divide on the question 
of implicit obedience to the law. 

It is the one rule of conduct for us all. I may not choose as 
President what laws I will enforce, and' the citizen may not choose 
what laws he will obey. Upon this broad principle our institutions 
rest. If we save it all the agitations and tumults of our campaigns, 
exciting though they may be. will be harmless to move our govern- 
ment from its safe and abiding foundation. 

If we abandon it, all is gone. Therefore, my appeal everywhere 
is to hold the law in veneration and reverence. We have no other 
king ; public officers are your servants ; but in the august and 
majestic presence of the law we all uncover and bow the knee. 

May every prosperity attend you. May this ground, made 
memorable by one of the most gallant assaults and by one of the 
most successful defenses in the story of the war, never again be 
stained by blood ; but may our people, in one common love of one 
flag and one Constitution, in a common and pervading fealty to the 
great principles of our government, go on to achieve material wealth, 
and in social development, in intelligence^ in piety, in everything that 
makes a nation great and a people happy, secure all the Lord has in 
His mind for a nation that He has so conspicuously blessed. [Great 
and prolonged cheering.] 



APRIL 15— CHATTANOOGA, TENN. 

After a rest on the train over night and an earlj' start 
Wednesday morning, April 15, the party arrived at Chattanooga 
at 8.30 o'clock, central time. The reception was most enthusi- 
astic, and the President in his speech said : 

THE CONQUEST OF ARMS AND THE CONQUEST OF PEACE. 

My Fellow Citizens : I have greatly enjoyed the opportunity 
of seeing Chattanooga again. I saw it last as the camp of a great 
army. Its only industries were military, its stores were munitions of 



war, its pleasant hill-tops were torn with rifle pits, its civic population 
the attendants of an army campaign. I see it to-day a great city, a 
prosperous commercial centre. I see these hill-tops, then bristling 
with guns, crowned with happy homes ; I see these streets, through 
which the worn veterans of many campaigns then marched, made 
glad with the presence of happy children. Everything is changed. 

The wand of an enchanter has touched these hills ; and old 
Lookout, that frowned over the valleys from which the plow had been 
withdrawn, now looks upon the peaceful industries of country life. 
All things are changed, except that the flag that then floated over 
Chattanooga floats here still. [Cheers. J It has passed from the hand 
of the veterans, who bore it to victor}^ in battle into the hands 
of the children, who lift it as an emblem of peace. [Cheers.] Then 
Chattanooga was war's gateway to the South ; now it is the gateway 
of peace, commerce and prosperity. [Cheers.] 

There have been two conquests — one with arms, the other with 
the gentle influences of peace — and the last is greater than the first. 
[Cheers.] The first is only great as it made way for that which 
followed ; and now, one again in our devotion to the Constitution and 
the laws ; one again in the determination that the question of the 
severance of the federal relations of these States shall never again be 
raised, we have started together upon a career of prosperity and 
development that has as yet given only the signs of what is to come. 

I congratulate Tennessee, I congratulate this prosperous city, I 
congratulate all those who through this gateway give and receive the 
interchanges of friendly commerce, that there is being wrought 
throughout our country a unification by commerce, a unification by 
similarity of institutions and habits, that shall in time erase every 
vestige of difference, and shall make us, not only in contemplation of 
the law, but in heart and sympathy, one people. [Cheers.] 

I thank you for your cordial greeting to-day, and hope for the 
development of the industries of our country and for the settling of our 
institutions upon the firm base of a respect for the law. In this glad 
springtime, while the gardens are full of blossoms and the fields give 
promise of another harvest, and your homes are full of happy children, 
let us thank God for what He has wrought for us as a people, and, 
each in our place, resolutely maintain the great idea upon which 
everything is builded — the rule of the majority, constitutionally 
expressed, and the absolute equality of all men before the law. 
[Cheers.] 



13 
CARTERSVILLE, GA, 

The party left Chattanooga at ii o'clock, and after cross- 
ing the Georgia State line were welcomed at Cartersville by 
Mayor Hemphill and the Georgia committee of reception, and in 
response to repeated calls at that place for a speech Mr. Harrison 
said: 

TRAVEL EASIER THAN IN 1864. 

My Friends : I am very much obliged to you for coming here 
in this shower to show your good will. I can only assure you that I 
entirely reciprocate your good feelings. I have had great pleasure 
to-day in passing over some parts of the old route that I took once 
before, under very different and distressing circumstances, to find how 
easy it is, when we are all agreed, to travel between Chattanooga and 
Atlanta. I am glad to see the evidences of prosperity that abound 
through your country, and I wish you in all your relations every human 
good. [Cheers.] 

ATLANTA, GA. 

On arrival at the depot at Atlanta, Ga., at 3.30 p.m., 
Governor Gordon, with a large delegation of citizens, met the 
President, and Governor Gordon said: '*I am glad to welcome 
your Excellenc}' to the State of Georgia. You will find among 
us loyal and hospitable people, and in their name I welcome 3'ou 
to the State." Replying, the President said that it gave him 
great pleasure to visit the empire State of the South, wonderful 
evidences of the prosperity of which were manifest in the stir- 
ring city of Atlanta. The full Presidential party were then taken 
in charge by the Atlanta reception committee for a drive around 
the city. The da}" was fine and the drive was made un- 
usually pleasant by a light April shower in the morning, 
which laid the dust and made the atmosphere delightfully 
refreshing. 

After the reception at the Capitol Wednesday evening the 



14 

President spoke at the Atlanta night school, where the boj^s 
greeted him with cheers and calls for a speech. He bowed his 
acknowledgments and said : 

GOOD ADVICE TO BOYS 

I am glad to be with you to-night. Having but a few minutes 
to spare I would offer a few words of encouragement to you. Most 
if not all of you are here at night because your circumstances are 
such that the day must be given to toil. The day is your earning 
period. The night must, therefore, be set apart for study. 

I am glad to see that so many find it in your hearts to be here in 
this school ; it is a very hopeful sign. I think it has in it the promise 
that you will each become a useful citizen in this country. Pluck and 
energy are two essential elements. A boy wants to be something. 
With pluck and energy, success is assured. There is a day of hope 
above every one of you. 

I bid you good cheer and would offer encouragement to every 
one of you, and I know every one of you may be useful and honorable 
citizens in this community, whose officers have taken the interest to 
organize this school for your benefit. I very sincerely and earnestly 
wish you Godspeed. Stick to your studies and don't neglect to 
acquire a needful education, and you may one day occupy the 
positions of honor which are held by those to-day in charge of the 
affairs of your city." 



APRIL i6— ATLANTA, GA. 

Next morning before leaving Atlanta the President made his 
first and only speech to the citizens of that cit3\ He spoke as 
follows : 

COMMON PURPOSES AND EQUAL RIGHIS. 

My Fellow Citizens : I desire in parting from you to give a 
public expression of my satisfaction and enjoyment in my brief visit 
to Atlanta. I saw this city once under circumstances of a ver\' 
unfavorable character. I did not think I would like it, although we 
were making a great effort to get it. [Laughter.] I am glad after all 
these days to see the great prosperity and development that has come 
to you. I think I am able to understand some of the influences that 
are at the bottom of it, and I am sure I look into the face of a com- 
munity that whatever their differences may have been, however the> 



15 

viewed the question of war when it was upon us, can have but one 
thought now as to what was best. We can all say with the Con- 
federate soldier who carried a gun for what seemed to him to be right 
that "the Lord knew better than any of us what was best for the 
country and for the world." You are thankful .for what He has 
wrought, and chiefly for the emancipation. It has opened up to 
diversified industries these States that were otherwise exclusively 
agricultural, and made it possible for you, not only to raise cotton, but 
to spin and weave it, and has made Georgia such a State as it could 
not have been under old conditions. I am sure we have many com- 
mon purposes, and as God shall gi^'e us power to see truth and right, 
let us do our duty, and while exacting all our rights let us bravely 
and generously give every other man his equal rights before the law. 
[Cheers.] 

I thank you for your reception, which has beeii warm and hos- 
pitable. I go from you very grateful for your kindness, very full of 
hope for your future. I cannot wish more than that the enterprising 
land owners whose work in grading and laying out the new additions I 
saw yesterday will realize all their hopes. I am sure that if that is 
done Atlanta will not long be rated the second city of the South. 
[Cheers.] 



TALLAPOOSA, GA. 

As the train drew into Tallapoosa, the familiar strains of 
" Hail to the Chief," played by the local band, greeted the Presi- 
dent. There was a large crowd present, headed by the Mayor of 
the city, and standing on the platform of his car, the President 
addressed the assemblage as follows : 

TEACH THE LITTLE ONES THE FEAR OF GOD. 

My Fellow Citizens : This large assemblage of people from this 
new and energetic city is very pleasant, and I thank you for the wel- 
come that it implies. All of these evidences of extending industry 
are extremely pleasing to me as I observe them. They furnish em- 
ployment to men ; they imply comfortable homes, contented families, 
a safe social organization, and are the strength of the nation. 

I am glad to see that these enterprises that are taking the ores 
from the earth and adapting them to the uses of civilization have not 
been started here unaccompanied by that more important work — 



i6 

the work of gathering the children into the schools and instructing 
them that they in their turn may be useful men and women. [Ap- 
plause. ] I am glad to greet these little ones this morning ; it is 
a cheerful sight. We are soon to lay down the work of life and the 
responsibilities of citizenship ; these mothers are soon to quit the 
ever-recurring and never-ending work of the home and give it into 
new hands. 

It is of the utmost consequence that these little ones be trained 
in mind and taught the fear of God and a benevolent regard for their 
tellow men, in order that their lives and social relations may be 
peaceful and happy. We are citizens of one country, having one flag 
and one destiny. We are starting upon a new era of development, 
and I hope this development is to keep pace and to be the promoting 
cause of a very perfect unification of our people. [Cheers.] 

FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS. 

We have a government whose principles are very simple and very 
popular. The whole theory of our institutions is that, pursuing those 
election methods which we have prescribed under the Constitution, 
every man shall exercise freely the right that the suffrage law confides to 
him, and that the majority, if it has expressed its will, shall con- 
clude the issue for us all. There is no other foundation. This was 
the enduring base upon which the fathers of our country placed our 
institutions. Let us always keep them there. Let us press the de- 
bate in our campaigns as to what the law should be ; but let us keep 
faith and submit with the reverence and respect which are due to the 
law when once lawfully enacted. [Applause.] 

The development which is coming to you in these regions of the 
South is marvelous. In ten years you increased your production of 
iron about 300 per cent. — nearly a million and a quarter of tons — and 
you have only begun to open these mines and to put these ores to 
the process of reduction. Now, I want to leave this thought with you: 
In the old plantations of the South you got everything from some- 
where else ; why not make it all yourselves ? [Cheers.] 

ANNISTON, ALA. 

A greater crowd of people, and an immense display of flags 
and bunting, greeted the President at Anniston, Ala. The train 
stopped for a few moments, and after a short address of welcome 
by Lieut. -Governor McKlero3% the President responded as follows: 



17 

THE NEW SOUTH. 

Fellow Citizens : I very much regret that I am able to make 
so Httle return to you for this cordial manifestation of your respect 
and friendship; and yet, even in these few moments which I am able 
to spend with you, I hope I shall gather and possibly be able to impart 
some impulse that may be mutually beneficial. I am glad to see with 
the eye that of which I have kept informed — the great development 
which is taking place in the mineral regions of the Southern States. 

I remember, as a boy, resident upon one of the great tributaries 
of the Mississippi, how the agricultural products of those States, 
the corn and provisions raised upon the fertile acres of the Ohio and 
Mississippi Valleys, were marketed in the South. The old broad-horn 
took its way down the Mississippi, stopping at the plantations to sell 
the provisions upon which the people of the South were largely sus- 
tained. The South was then essentially a plantation region, producing 
one or two great staples that found a ready market in the world, but 
dependent for its implements of industry and domestic utensils upon 
the States of the North Mississippi Valley. 

COTTON AND WATERMELONS. 

I am glad all this is changed, that you are realizing the benefits 
of diversified agriculture, and that the production upon your farms of 
the staples which you once bought elsewhere is largely increasing ; 
and I am glad that to diversified agriculture you have also added these 
great mechanical pursuits which have brought into your communities 
artisans and laborers who take from the adjacent farms the surplus of 
your fertile lands. [Cheers.] There has been received in the South 
since the war not less than $8,000,000,000 for cotton ; and Ivhile I 
rejoice in that, I am glad to know that in this general region there are 
near one hundred thousand acres devoted to raising watermelons. 
[Laughter.] 

No farmer, certainly no planter, in the old time, would have con- 
sented to sell watermelons. You are learning that things which were 
small and despised have come to be great elements in your com- 
merce. Now your railroads make special provision for the transporta- 
tion of a crop which brings large wealth to your people. 

THE BENEFIT OF HOME MARKETS. 

I mention this as a good illustration of the changing conditions 
into which you are entering. You are realizing the benefits of home 
markets for what you produce, and I am sure you will unite with me 
in those efforts which we ought to make, not only to fill our own mar- 

2 



i8 

kets with all that this great nation of 65,000,000 needs, but to reach 
out to other markets and enter into competition with the world for 
them, [Cheers.] This we shall do, and with all this mechanical and 
commercial development we shall realize largely that condition of 
unification of heart and interest to which those who have spoken for 
you have so eloquently alluded. [Cheers.] 

And now, wishing that the expectations of all who are interested 
in this stirring young city may be realized, that all your industries 
may be active and profitable, I add the wish that those gentler and 
kindlier agencies of the school and church, of a friendly social life, 
may always pervade and abide with you as a community. [Cheers.] 

PELL CITY, ALA. 

Shortly after passing Anniston the train reached Pellr City, 
Alabama, where an enthusiastic crowd were gathered at the depot. 
The President only had time to say a word or two in response to 
the ovation, saying : * ' My friends, I am very glad to meet you and 
beg to assure you of my appreciation of your very friendly 
reception. ' ' 

BIRMINGHAM, ALA. 

The royal welcome given to the President at Birmingham, 
Ala., was one of the features of the trip. The immense depot 
at the Magic City was thronged with enthusiastic people, and 
the ovation which greeted the President was long and genuine. 
Governor Jones of Alabama and Mayor Lane of Birmingham, 
with a large committee, welcomed the party to the city. Both 
gentlemen made long addresses of welcome, and President Har- 
rison responded as follows : 

PROPHECIES CONFIRMED. 

Governor Jones, Mr. Mayor and Fellow Citizens : The 
noise of your industries will not stay itself, I fear, sufficiently to 
enable me to make myself heard by many in this immense throng 
that has gathered to welcome us. I judge from what we have seen 
as we neared your station that we have here at Birmingham the 



largest and most enthusiastic concourse of people that has met us 
since we left the national capital. [Great and prolonged cheering.] 
For all this I am deeply grateful. The rapidity with which we must 
pursue this journey will not allow us to look with any detail into the 
great enterprises which cluster about your city ; but if we shall only 
have opportunity to see for a moment these friendly faces and listen 
to these friendly words, we shall carry away that which will be inval- 
uable, and, I trust, by the friendly exchange of greetings, may leave 
something to you that is worth cherishing [Great cheering.] I have 
read of the marvelous development, which, in the last few years, has 
been stirring the solitude of these southern mountains, and I remem- 
ber that not many years after the war, when I had resumed my law 
practice at Indianapolis, I was visited by a gentleman, known, I 
expect, to all of you, upon some professional business. He came to 
pursue a collection claim against a citizen of Indiana ; but he seemed 
to be more interested in talking about Birmingham than anything else. 
[Laughter and cheers.] That man was Colonel Powell, one of the 
early promoters of your city. [Cheers.] I listened to his story of the 
marvelous wealth of iron and coal that was stored in this region ; of 
their nearness to each other, and to the limestone necessary for 
smelting ; to his calculations as to the cheapness with which iron 
could be produced here, and his glowing story of the great city that 
was to be reared, with a good deal of incredulity. I thought he was 
a visionary ; but I have regretted ever since that I did not ask him to 
pay me my fee in town lots in Birmingham. [Laughter and cheers.] 

A NEW INDUSTRIAL BIRTH. 

My countrymen, we thought the war a great calamity, and so it 
was. The destruction of life and of property was sad beyond expres- 
sion ; and yet, we can see now that God led us through that Red Sea 
to a development in material prosperity and to a fraternity that was 
not otherwise possible. [Cheers.] The industries that have called 
to your midst so many toiling men are always and everywhere the 
concomitants of freedom. Out of all this freedom from the incubus 
of slavery the South has found a new industrial birth. Once almost 
wholly agricultural, you are now not the less fruitful in crops, but 
you have added all this. [Cheers.] You have increased your pro- 
duction of cotton, and have added an increase in ten years of nearly 
300 per cent, in the production of iron. You have produced three- 
fourths of the cotton crop of the world, and it has brought you since 
the war about $8,000,000,000 of money to enrich your people. But, 
as yet, you are spinning in the South only 8 per cent, of it. Why 



20 

not, with the help we will give you in New England and the North, 
spin it all ? [Cheers.] Why not establish here cotton mills that shall 
send, not the crude agricultural product to other markets, but the 
manufactured product ? [Cheers.] Why not, while supplying sixty- 
five millions of people, reach out and take a part we have not had in 
the commerce of the w^orld ? [Cheers.] I believe we are to see now 
a renaissance in American prosperity, and in the up-building again of 
our American merchant marine. [Cheers.] I believe that these 
southern ports that so favorably look out with invitations to the 
States of Central and South America shall yet see our fleets carrying 
the American flag and the products of Alabama to the markets of 
South America. [Great cheering.] 

AID FOR AMERICAN SHIPPING. 

In all this we are united ; w'e may differ as to method, but if you 
will permit me I w^ill give an illustration to show how we have been 
dealing with this shipping question. I can remember when no whole- 
sale merchant ever sent a drummer into the field. He said to his cus- 
tomers : '' Come to my store and buy;" but competition increased and 
the enterprising merchant started out men to seek customers ; and so 
his fellow merchant was put to the choice, to put traveling men into 
the field or to go out of business. It seems to me, wdiatever we may 
think of the policy of aiding our steamship lines, that since every other 
great nation does it, we must do it or stay out of business, for we 
have pretty much gone out. [Cheers.] I am glad to reciprocate with 
the very fulness of my heart every fraternal expression that has fallen 
from the lips of these gentlemen who have addressed me in your 
behalf. [Cheers.] I have not been saved from mistakes ; probably 
I shall not be. I am sure of but one thing — I can declare that I have 
simply at heart the glory of the American nation, and the good of all 
its people. [Great and prolonged cheering.] I thank these companies 
of the State militia, one of w^hom I recognize as having done me the 
honor to attend the inaugural ceremony, for their presence. They 
are deserving. Sir (to the Governor), of your encouragement and that 
of the State of Alabama. They are the reserve army of the United 
States. It is our policy not to have a large regular army, but to 
have a trained militia that, in any exigency, will step to the defense 
of the country ; and if that exigency shall ever arise — which God 
forbid — I know that you would respond as quickly and readily as 
any other State. [Cheers.] 

The Governor : You w^ill find all Alabama at your back. Sir. 
[Continued cheering.] 



21 



I am glad to know that in addition to all this business you are 
doing, you are also attending to education and to those things that con- 
duce to social order. The American home is the one thing we cannot 
afford to lose out of the American life. [Cheers.] As long as we 
have pure homes, and God-fearing, order-loving fathers and mothers 
to rear the children that are given to them, and to make these homes 
the abodes of order, cleanliness, piety and intelligence, the Ameri- 
can society and the American union are safe. [Great cheering.] 

Mr. Harrison spoke with great deliberation at first, but as 

lie proceeded he caught the spirit of the occasion. The warm 

enthusiasm of his audience, the outbursts of applause, the eager 

faces, stirred his feelings, and before he concluded he was 

almost impassioned in his earnestness. It was a fine, outspoken, 

patriotic speech, and everybody was aroused and delighted, and 

showed it. 

BIRMINGHAM, ALA. (Luncheon Speech.) 

A parade followed the speeches and a luncheon was served 
at the hotel in the afternoon. During the luncheon Mr. Rufus 
N. Rhoades, of the local reception committee, arose and proposed 
the health of the President of the United States. The toast 
was drunk standing. Amid the utmost enthusiasm the Pres- 
ident responded briefly, saying : 

PRAISE FOR BIRMINGHAM. 

We have seen something of the marvelous material growth of 
Birmingham, and seen evidence of the great richness of your " black 
diamonds" and your iron, and now we see something of your home 
life. The many beautiful women whom we have had the happiness 
to meet, and some of whom are now with us, are the angels of your 
homes, and right glad we are to be favored by their presence. After 
all it is their homes which make a people great. We are glad to be 
here ; for, really, you overwhelm us with kindness. [Long contm- 
ued applause.] 



22 

BIRMINGHAM, ALA. (Address to Colored People.) 

After the luncheon, the President, Secretary Rusk, Post- 
master-General Wanamaker, Mr. Russell Harrison and other 
members of the party were escorted by a committee of colored 
citizens to the colored Baptist Church, where a reception was 
held. Rev. Mr. Pettiford, the pastor, welcomed the President 
and introduced him. The President responded in a few words 
of cheer to his hearers. He counseled them to be industrious 
and economical. They were in the midst of one of the most 
remarkable developments in the history of the country and 
they must take advantage of their opportunities. Let them 
live in peace with their white friends and strive to be worthy 
citizens of a great city, a great State and a great nation. 

Postmaster- General Wanamaker also made a few remarks. 
The party then went to their train and started immediately 
for Memphis. 

APRIL 17— MEMPHIS, TENN. 

It was early in the morning when the party arrived at Mem- 
phis, and by 9 o'clock all were in carriages and were driven up to 
the Court House Square, where the President was welcomed by 
Mayor Clapp. In response to the address of welcome the Presi- 
dent said : 

GROWTH OF THE COTTON STATES. 

My Fellow Citizens : The name of the city of Memphis was 
familiar to me in my early boyhood. Born and reared upon one of 
the tributaries of the great river upon which your city is located, 
these river marts of commerce were the familiar trading posts of the 
farmers of the Ohio Valley. I well remember when, on the shores of 
father's farm, the old *' broad-horn " was loaded from the hay press 
and the corn crib to market with the plantations along the Lower 
Mississippi. I remember to have heard from him and the neighbors 
who constituted the crew of those pioneer craft of river navigation of 
the perils of these great waters ; of the snags and caving banks of 



the Lower Mississippi. In those times these States were largely sup- 
plied with grain and forage from the Northwestern States. Here you 
were giving your attention to one or two great staple products, for 
which you found a large foreign market. I congratulate you that the 
progress of events has made you not less agricultural, but has diversi- 
fied your agriculture so that you are not now wholly dependent upon 
these great staples for the income of your farms. 

The benefits of this diversification are very great and the change 
symbolizes more than we at first realize. This change means that we 
are xiow coming to understand that meanness cannot be predicated 
of any honest industry. I rejoice that you are adding to diversified 
agriculture diversified manufacturing pursuits ; that you are turning 
your thought to compressing and spinning cotton as well as raising 
it. I know no reason why these cotton States, that produce 75 per 
cent, of the cotton of the world, should not spm the greater portion 
of it. I know no reason why they should export it as raw material, 
rather than as a manufactured product, holding in their midst the 
profits of this transformation of the raw material to the finished pro- 
duct. [Applause.] 

THE MISSISSIPPI HIGHWAY OF COMMERCE. 

I hope it may be so. I see evidence that the people are turning 
their attention to new industries, and are bringing into the midst of 
these farming communities a large population of artisans and laborers 
to consume at your own doors the product of your farms. I am glad 
that a liberal government is making this great waterway to the sea 
safe and capable of an uninterrupted use. I am glad that it is here 
making the shores of your own city convenient and safe, and that it 
is opening, north and south, an uninterrupted and cheap transporta- 
tion for the products of these lands that lie along this great system of 
rivers. I am glad that it is bringing you in contact with ports of the 
Gulf that look out with near and inviting aspect toward a great trade 
in South America that we shall soon possess. I am glad to believe 
that these great river towns will speedily exchange their burdens with 
American ships at the mouth of the Mississippi to be transported to 
foreign ports under the flag of our country. [Great cheering.] 

THE MAJORITY OUGHT TO RULE. 

This government of ours is a compact of the people to be gov- 
erned by a majority, expressing itself by lawful methods. [Cheers.] 
Everything in this country is to be brought to the measure of the 
law. I propose no other rule either as an individual or as a public 



24 

officer. I cannot in any degree let down this rule [Cries of " No " 
and cheers] without violating my official duty. There must be no 
other supremacy than that of lawful majorities. We must all come 
at last to this conclusion, that the supremacy of the law is the one 
supremacy in this country of ours. [Cheers.l 

Now, my fellow citizens, I thank you for this warm and mag- 
nificent demonstration of your respect, accepting cordially the expres- 
sion of the chief of your city government that you are a sincere, 
earnest, patriotic, devoted people. I beg to leave with you 
the suggestion that each in his place shall do what he can to maintain 
social order and public peace ; that the Imes here and everywhere 
shall be between the well-disposed and the ill-disposed. 

SOUND WORDS TO EX-CONFEDERATES. 

The effort of speech to this immense throng is too great for me. 
I beg to assure you that I carry from the great war no sentiment of 
ill-will to anv. [Cheers.] I am glad that the Confederate soldier, 
confessing that defeat which has brought him blessings that would 
have been impossible otherwise, has been taken again into full par- 
ticipation in the administration of the government ; that no penal- 
ties, limitations or other inflictions rest upon him. I have taken and 
can always take the hand of a brave Confederate soldier with confi- 
dence and respect. [Great cheering.] 

I would put him under one yoke only, and that is the yoke that 
the victors in that struggle bore when they went home and laid 
off their uniforms — the yoke of the law and the obligation always 
to obey it. [Cheers.] Upon that platform, without distinction 
between the victors and the vanquished, we enter together upon 
possibilities as a people that we cannot overestimate. I believe the 
nation is lifting itself to a new life ; that this flag shall float on unfa- 
miliar seas and that this coming prosperity will be equally shared by 
all our people. [Prolonged cheering.] 

LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS. 

It was 5:30 o'clock in the afternoon when the President 
reached Little Rock. The reception w^as cordial, and after an 
address of welcome by Governor Eagle, at the State House, 
the President replied as follows: 

ADVICE FOR ARKANSAS. 

Governor Eagle and Fellow Citizens : No voice is large 
enough to compass this immense throng. But my heart is large 



enough to receive all the gladness and joy of your great welcome 
here to-day. [Applause.] I thank you one and all tor your pres- 
ence, for tlie kind words of greeting which have been spoken by your 
Governor, and for these kind faces turned to me. In all this I see a 
great fraternity ; in all this I feel new impulses to a better discharge 
of every public and every private duty. I can not but feel that in 
consequence of this brief contact with you to-day I shall carry away 
a better knowledge of your State, its resources, its capabilities, and 
of the generous warm-heartedness of its people. We have a country 
whose greatness this meeting evidences, for there are here assembled 
masses of independent men. The commonwealth rests upon the free 
suffrage of its citizens and their devotion to the Constitution, and 
the flag is the bulwark of its life. [Cheers.] We have agreed, I am 
sure, that we will do no more fighting among ourselves. [Cries of 
^' Good !" *' good !" and cheers.] I may say to you confidentially 
that Senator Jones and I agreed several years ago, after observing 
together the rifle praccice at Fort Snelling, that shooting had been 
reduced to such accuracy that war was too dangerous for either of 
us to engage in it. [Laughter and cheers.] But, my friends, I can 
not prolong this talk. Once already to-day in the dampness of this 
atmosphere I have attempted to speak, and therefore you will allow 
me to conclude by wishing for your State, for its Governor, and all 
its public officers, for all its citizens without exception, high or hum- 
ble, the blessing of social order, peace and prosperity, the fruits of 
intelligence and piety. [Great cheering.] 

APRIL i8— TEXARKANA, ARK. 

It was nearly 12 o'clock when the train drew into Texarkana, 

but notwithstanding the lateness of the hour over 2000 people 

awaited the President's arrival. The band of music played 

*' Dixie " from the time the train arrived until it left, with only 

an intermission for the President's speech, which was short. He 

spoke as follows : 

Having had notice of your request that we stop here for a few 
moments, I have remained up in order to thank you for your 
expressed interest and for this very large and cordial demonstration. 
I have spoken several times during the day and am sure you. will 
excuse me from attempting now, at midnight, to make a speech. I 
hope that prosperity is here and that it may abide with you. Thank- 
ing you again, I bid you good-night. 



26 

PALESTINE, TEXAS. 

The great reception the President had all through Texas 
began at the very borders of the great Lone Star State. Gov- 
ernor Hogg with ex-Senator Reagan and a committee of ladies 
welcomed the President at Palestine at 7 o'clock in the morning, 
and the Governor made his formal address of welcome at that 
place. In replying to the welcoming speech the President said : 

THE NURSERY OF AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP. 

Governor Hogg and Fellow Citizens : It gives me pleasure to 
come this fresh morning into this great State, a kingdom without a 
king, an empire without an emperor, a State gigantic in proportions 
and matchless in resources, with diversified industries and infinite 
capacities to sustain a tremendous population, and to bring to every 
home where industry abides prosperity and comfort. Such homes, I 
am sure, are represented here this morning — the American home, where 
the father abides in the respect and the mother in the deep love of the 
children that sit about the fireside ; where all that makes us good is 
taught and the first rudiments of obedience to law, of orderly relations 
one to another are put into the young minds. Out of this comes 
social order ; on this rests the security of our country. The home is 
the training school for American citizenship. There we learn to defer to 
others ; selfishness is suppressed by the needs of those about us. There 
self-sacrifice, love and willingness to give ourselves for others are born. 

I thank you that so many of you have come here this morning 
from such homes, and all of us are thankful together that peace rests 
upon our whole country. All of us have pledged ourselves that no sec- 
tional strife shall ever divide us, and that while abiding in peace with 
all the world we are, against all aggression, one mighty, united people. 
[Cheers. ] 

I desire to assure you, my countrymen, that in my heart I make 
no distinction between our people anywhere. [Cheers. ] I have a 
deep desire that everywhere in all our States there shall be that profound 
respect for the will of the majority, expressed by our voters, that shall 
bring constant peace into all our communities. It is very kind of you 
to come here this morning before breakfast. Perhaps you are initiating 
me into the Texas habit— is it so ? — of taking something before break- 
fast. [Laughter and cheers.] This exhilarating draught of good will 
you have given me this morning will not, I am sure, disturb either my 
digestion or comfort during this day. [Cheers.] 



27 

HOUSTON, TEXAS. 

It was noon when the train arrived at Houston. A stop 
for one hour was made, and the party was met at the station 
by the Mayor and ex-Congressman Stewart. The President 
addressed the crowd which surrounded the depot as follows : 

THE GREATNESS OF TEXAS. 

My Fellow Citizens : Your faces all respond to the words of wel- 
come which have been spoken in your behalf We have been not only 
pleased but touched by the delicate and kindly expressions of regard 
which we have received since entering the State of Texas. I remained 
up last night until after midnight that I might not unconsciously pass 
into this great State, and 1 was called very early from my bed this 
morning to receive a draught of welcome, before I had breakfasted, 
from another Texas audience. You have a State whose greatness 1 
think you have discovered. 

A stranger can hardly hope to point out to you that which you 
have not already known. Perhaps Virginia and Kentucky have been 
heard to say more about their respective States than Texas ; but I 
think their voices are likely soon to be drowned by the enthusiastic and 
affectionate claims which you will present to the country for your great 
commonwealth. [Cheers. ] You have the resources in some measure- 
in a great measure — of all the States gathered within your borders; a 
soil adapted to the production of all the cereals and grasses ; and to 
this you add cotton, sugar and tobacco. You are very rightly diversi- 
fying your crops, because the history of intelligent farming shows that 
as the crops are diversified the people prosper. 

DIVERSIFIED AGRICULTURE. 

All is not staked upon the success of a single crop. You do well, 
therefore, to raise cotton, sugar and tobacco, and I am glad you are 
not neglecting cattle, sheep, hogs, corn and all the cereals. We have been 
trying to do what we could from Washington to make for you a larger 
and better market for your enormous meat products. [Cheers.] We 
have felt that the restricdons imposed by some of the European govern- 
ments could not be fairly jusdfied upon the ground stated by them. 
Already the Secretary of Agriculture — himself a farmer, who has with 
his own hands wrought in all the work of the farm — has succeeded in 
procuring the removal of some of these injurious restrictions, and has 
announced to the country that exportation of cattle has increased lOo 



28 

per cent, in the last year. [Cheers. ] I beg to assure you that these 
interests will have the most careful attention from the Government at 
Washington and from our representatives at foreign courts. It is 
believed that we have now by legislation a system of sanitary inspec- 
tion of our meat products that, when once put in operation and exam- 
ined by the European governments, will remove the last excuse for the 
exclusion of our meats from those foreign States. 

Our time is so limited that I can scarcely say more than "thank 
you." We cannot at all repay you for this demonstration of welcome, 
but let me say that in all your prosperity L shall rejoice. I do desire 
that all our legislation and all our institutions and the combined ener- 
gies of all our people shall work together for the common good of all 
our States and all our population. [Great cheering.] You have great 
resources of a material sort, and yet above all this I rejoice that the 
timely forethought of your public men has provided an unexampled 
school fund for the education of the children. 

These things that partake of the life that is spiritual are better 
after all than the material. Indeed, there can be no true prosperity in 
any State or community where they are not thoughtfully fostered. Good 
social order, respect for the law, regard for other men's rights, orderly, 
peaceful administration are the essential things in any community. 
[Cheers. ] 



GALVESTON, TEXAS. 

The President reached Galveston at 3.30 o'clock Saturday 
afternoon, April 18, but he did not make his great speech until 
after 6 o'clock that evening. The afternoon was taken up b}^ a 
trip on the Mallory line steamship around the harbor to the 
jetties. This was followed by a parade and a shower of flowers. 
He arrived at the Beach Hotel just as the darkness of night came on. 
The President was escorted to the stand erected in front of the 
hotel and, amid the sound of the waves, and the stiff breezes of the 
Gulf, made his celebrated speech to the thousands gathered on 
the lawn and porches of the big hotel. It was the longest speech 
of the trip and perhaps has caused more comment than any other. 
It was as follows : 



29 
THE LONGEST SPEECH OF THE TRIP. 

My Fellow Citizens : We close to-night a whole week of travel, 
a whole week of hand-shaking, a whole week of talking. I have before 
me ten thousand miles of hand-shaking and speaking. And I am not, 
by reason of what this week has brought me, in voice to contend with 
the fine but rather strong Gulf breeze which pours in upon us to-night; 
and yet it comes to me laden with the fragrance of your welcome. 
[Cheers.] It comes with the softness, refreshment and grace which 
have accompanied all my intercourse with the people of Texas. 
[Great cheering. ] 

The magnificent and cordial demonstration which you have made 
in our honor to-day will always remain a bright and pleasant picture in 
my memory. [Great cheers. J I am glad to have been able to rest 
my eyes upon the city of Galveston. I am glad to have been able to 
traverse this harbor and to look upon that work which a liberal and 
united government has inaugurated for your benefit and for the benefit 
of the Northwest. [Great and prolonged cheers.] I have always 
believed that it was one of the undisputed functions of the general 
government to make these great waterways which penetrate our country 
and these harbors into which our shipping must come to receive the 
tribute of rail and river safe and easy of access. 

AID FOR OUR HARBORS. 

This ministering care should extend to our whole country, and I am 
glad that, adopting a policy with reference to the harbor work, here at 
kast, which I insisted upon in a public message [great and prolonged 
cheering], the appropriation has been made adequate to a diligent and 
prompt completion of the work. [Great cheering.] In the past the 
government has undertaken too many things at once, and its annual 
appropriations have been so inadequate that the work of the engineers 
was much retarded and often seriously damaged in the interval of 
waiting for fresh appropriations. 

It is a better policy, when a work has once been determined to be 
of national significance, that the appropriation should be sufficient to 
bring it speedily and without loss to a conclusion. [Great cheering. ] 
I am glad that the scheme of the engineer for giving deep water to 
Galveston is thus to be prosecuted. 

I have said some of our South Atlantic and Gulf ports occupy a 
most favorable position for the new commerce toward which we are 
reaching out our hands, and which is reaching out its hands to us. 
[Great cheering. ] I am an economist in the sense that I would not 
waste one dollar of public money. But I am not an economist in the 



30 

sense that I would leave incomplete or suffer to lag any great work 
highly promotive of the true interests of our people. [Great cheering. ] 
We are great enough and rich enough to reach forward to grander 
conceptions than have entered the minds of some of our statesmen in 
the past. If you are content, I am not, that the nations of Europe 
shall absorb nearly the entire commerce of these near sister republics 
that lie south of us. It is naturally in large measure ours — ours by 
neighborhood, ours by nearness of access, ours by that sympathy that 
binds a hemisphere without a king. [Cheers. ] 

RECIPROCITY IS COMING. 

The inauguration of the Three Americas Congress, or more 
properly the American Conference, the happy conduct of that meeting, 
the wise and comprehensive measures which were suggested by it, with 
the fraternal and kindly spirit that was manifested by our southern 
neighbors, has stimulated a desire in them and in our people for a 
larger intercourse of commerce and of friendship. The provisions 
of the bill passed at the last session, looking to a reciprocity of trade, 
not only met with my official approval, when I signed the bill, but 
with my zealous promotion before the bill was reported. [Great and 
prolonged cheering.] 

Its provision concerning reciprocity is that we have placed upon 
our free list sugar, tea, coffee and hides, and have said to those nations 
from whom we receive these great staples: Give us free access to 
your ports for an equivalent amount of our produce in exchange, or we 
will re-impose duties upon the articles named. The law leaves it wholly 
to the Executive to negotiate these arrangements. It does not need 
that they shall take the form of a treaty. 

They need not be submitted for the concurrence of the Senate. 
It only needs that we, having made our offer, shall receive their 
offer in return; and when they shall have made up an acceptable 
schedule of articles produced by us that shall have free access to their 
ports a proclamation by the President closes the whole business. 
[Cheers.] Already one treaty with that youngest of the South 
American republics, the great republic of Brazil, has been negotiated 
and proclaimed. I think, without disclosing an Executive secret, I 
may tell you that the arrangement with Brazil is not likely to abide 
in lonesomeness much longer [great and prolonged cheering] ; that 
others are to follow, and that as a result of these trade arrange- 
ments the products of the United States, our meats, our bread- 
stuffs and certain lines of manufactured goods, are to find free or 
favored access to the ports of many of these South and Central Ameri- 



31 

can States. All the States will share in these benefits. We have had 
some analysis of the manifests of some of our steamers now sailing to 
South American ports, and in a single steamer it was found that 
twenty-five States contributed to the cargo. 

AMERICAN MAILS ON AMERICAN SHIPS. 

But we shall need something more. We shall need American 
steamships to carry American goods to these ports. [Great cheering.] 
The last Congress passed a bill appropriating about |i, 500,000, and 
authorized the Postmaster-General to contract with steamship com- 
panies for a period not exceeding ten years, for the carrying of the 
United States mail. The foreign mail service is the only mail service 
out of which the government has been making a net profit. We do 
not make a profit out of our land service. 

There is an annual deficiency, which my good friend the Post- 
master-General has been trying very hard to reduce or wipe out. The 
theory of our mail service is that it is for the people, that we are not to 
make a profit out of it, that we are to give them as cheap postage as 
is possible. We are, many of us, looking forward to a time when we 
shall have one-cent postage in this country. [Cheers. ] We have been 
so close and penurious in dealing with our ships in the carrying of 
foreign mails that we have actually made revenues out of that business, 
not having spent for it what we have received from it. Now we pro- 
pose to change that policy and to make more liberal contracts with 
American lines carrying American mail. [Cheers.] 

THE SENSELESS CRY OF "SUBSIDY." 

Some one may say we ought not to go into this business, that it is 
subsidy. But, my friend, every other great nation of the world has 
been doing it and is doing it to-day. Great Britain and France have 
built up their great steamship lines by government aid, and it seems 
to me our attitude with reference to that is aptly portrayed by an 
illustradon I mentioned the other day. In olden times no wholesale 
merchant sent out traveling men to solicit custom, but he stood in his 
own store and waited for his customers. But presendy some enterpris- 
ing merchant began to send out men with their samples to seek the 
trade, to save the country buyer the cost of the trip to New York or 
Philadelphia, until finally that practice has become universal, and these 
active, intelligent traveling men are scurrying this country over, pushing 
and soliciting in their several lines of business. Now imagine some 
conservative merchant in New York saying to himself: "All this is 
wrong; the trade ought to come to me. " If he should refuse to adopt 



32 

these modem methods what would be the result? He must adopt the 
new methods or go out of business. We have been refusing to adopt 
the universal method of our competitors in commerce to stimulate their 
shipping interest and have gone out of the business. [Laughter and 
cheers.] Encouraged by what your spokesman has said to-night, I 
venture to declare that I am in favor of going into business again, and 
when it is re-estabHshed I hope Galveston will be in the partnership. 
[Great cheers. ] 

A NEW COMMERCIAL ERA. 

It has been the careful study of the Postmaster- General in prepar- 
ing to execute the law to which I have referred to see how much 
increase in routes and ships we could secure by it. We have said to 
the few existing American lines : You must not treat this appropria- 
tion as a plate of soup, to be divided and consumed. You must give 
us new lines, new ships, increased trips and new ports of call. Already 
the steamship lines are looking over the routes to see what they can do, 
with a view of increasing their tonnage and establishing new lines. 

The Postmaster-General has invited the attention and suggestion 
of all the boards of trade of all our sea-board cities. Undoubtedly you 
have received such a letter. This appropriation is for one year ; what the 
future is to be must depend upon the deliberate judgment of the people. 
If during my term of office they shall strike down a law that I believe 
to be beneficial or destroy its energy by withholding appropriations, I 
shall bow to their will, but I shall feel great disappointment if we do not 
make an era for the revival of American commerce. I do much want 
that the time shall come when our citizens living in temporary exile in 
foreign ports shall now and then see steaming into these distant ports a 
fine modern man-of-war, flying the United States flag [cheers], with 
the best modern guns on her deck and a brave American crew in her 
forecastle. [Cheers.] I want, also, that in these ports, so long 
unfamiliar with the American flag, there shall again be found our steam- 
ships and our sailing vessels flying the flag that we all love, and carry- 
ing from our shores the products that these men of toil have brought 
to them to exchange for the products of other climes. 

THE NICARAGUA CANAL. 

I think we should add to all this, and happily it is likely to be ac- 
complished by individual efforts, the early completion of the Nicaragua 
Canal. [Cheers.] The Pacific coast should no longer be found by 
sea only by the passage of the Horn. The short route should be opened, 
and it will be, and then with this wondrous stirring among the people 



33 

of all our States, this awakening to new business plans and more care- 
ful and economical work, there will come great prosperity to all our 
people. Texas will spin more of the cotton that she raises. 

The great States of the South will be in discontent with the old 
condition that made them simply agricultural States, and will rouse 
themselves to compete with the older manufacturing States of the North 
and East. [Cheers.] The vision I have, all the thoughts I have, of 
this matter, embrace all the States and all my countrymen. I do not 
think of it as a question of party; I think of it as a great American 
question. [Cheers,] By the invitation of the address which was made 
to me I have freely spoken my mind to you on these topics. I hope I 
have done so with no offense or impropriety. [Cries of "No, no," 
and cheers.] 

I would not on an occasion so full of general good feeling as this 
obtrude anything that should induce division or dissent. For all who 
do dissent I have the most respectful tolerance. The views I hold are 
the result of some thought and investigation, and as they are questions 
of public concern I confidently submit them to the arbitrament of brave 
and enlightened American suffrage. [Applause and cheers.] 



SUNDAY, APRIL 19th. 

REST. 

NO SPEECHES 



35 

APRIL 20— SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS. 

After a Sunday of rest the President started on Monday 
morning, April 20, on his ride across Texas, New Mexico, and 
Arizona, to California. His first stop was at San Antonio. 
Here the greatest preparations had been made for a floral festival, 
but the rain somewhat interfered with the programme. How- 
ever, the crowds were tremendous, notwithstanding the wet, 
and the Durand Opera House, where the President made his 
address, was packed with people. He spoke as follows : 

A RAIN WORTH FIVE MILLIONS. 

Mr. Mayor and Fellow Citizens : I very much regret that 
frequent speaking in the open air during the past week and the very 
heavy atmosphere which we have this morning have somewhat 
impaired my voice. I am sure you will crown your hospitality and 
kindness by allowing me to speak to you very briefly. I sympathize 
with you in the distress which you felt that the day is so unpro- 
pitious for any street demonstration, but I have been told by one 
wise in such matters that this rain is worth $5,000,000 to Western 
Texas. That being the case, it greatly moderates our regret. It 
has come to be a popular habit of attributing to the President what- 
ever weather may happen on any demonstration in which he takes a 
part. I suppose I may claim credit this morning for this beneficial 
rain. [Applause.] I generously assure you that if it is worth as 
much money as my friend has estimated, I shall not take more than 
half that sum. [Laughter.] In visiting for a little while this historic 
city I had anticipated great pleasure in looking upon the remains of 
an earlier occupancy of this territory in which you now dwell. Our 
glance this morning must be brief and imperfect, but the history has 
been written and the traditions of these martyrdoms, which occurred 
here for liberty, are fresh in your minds and are still an inspiring 
story to be repeated to your children. 

TEXAS undivided. 

I remember in my early boyhood to have heard in our family 
thrilling descriptions of the experiences of an uncle, whose name I 
bear, in some of those campaigns for freedom in Texas in which he 
took a part, so that the story to me goes back to those dim early 
recollections of childhood. I am glad to stand where those recol- 



36 

lections are revived and freshened, for they were events of mo- 
mentous importance to this country, to this State and to the whole 
Union. I rejoice that you have here so great a commonwealth. 
The stipulations under which Texas came into the Union of the 
States, and which provided that that great Territory might be sub- 
divided into five States, seem not to attract much attention in 
Texas now. 

Indeed, as far as I can judge, no man would be able success- 
fully to appeal to the suffrages of any hamlet in Texas upon the 
issue that the State should be divided at all. [Cheers.] The great 
industrial capacities which you have, the beneficent climate that 
spreads over much of your vast territory, the great variety of pro- 
ductions which your soil and climate render possible, give a promise 
for the future of a prominence among the great States of the Union 
that seems to me can scarcely fail to bring Texas to the front rank. 
[Cheers.] You are only now beginning to plow this vast stretch of 
land. You are only now beginning to diversify those interests, to 
emancipate yourselves by producing at home in your fields all of 
those products which are necessary to comfortable existence. 

I hope you will soon add, indeed, you are now largely adding, 
to this diversity of agricultural pursuits, a diversity of mechanical 
pursuits. The advantages which you have to transmute the great 
production of the field into the manufactured product are very great. 
There can be certainly no reason why a very large part of the 
million bales of cotton w^hich you produce should not be spun in 
Texas. [Cheers.] I hope your people will more and more turn 
their thoughts to this matter, for just in proportion as a community or 
State suitably divides its energies among various industries, so does 
it retain the wealth it produces and increase its population. [Ap- 
plause. ] 

FREEDOM BETTER THAN MERE BIGNESS. 

A great Englishman, visiting this country some time ago, in 
speaking of the impressions which were made upon his mind, said he 
was constantly asked as he traveled through the country, whether 
he was not amazed at its territorial extent. He said while this, of 
course, was a notable incident of travel, he wondered that we did 
not forget all our bigness of territory in a contemplation of the great 
spectacle we presented as a free people in organized and peaceful 
community. He regarded this side of our country and her institu- 
tions as much more important than its material development, or its 
territorial extent, and he was right in that judgment. 



37 

PUBLIC SCHOOLS THE PRIDE AND SAFETY OF THE STATE. 

My fellow citizens, the pride of America, that which should 
attract the admiration and has attracted the imagination of many 
people upon the face of the earth, is our system of government. 
[Applause.] I am glad to know and to have expressed my satisfac- 
tion before, that, here in this State of Texas, you are giving attention 
;o education; that you have been able to erect a school fund, the 
interest upon which promises a most magnificent endowment for 
your common schools. These schools are the pride and safety 
of your State. They gather into them upon a common level with us, 
and I hope with you, the children of the rich and poor. In the State 
in which I dwell everybody's children attend the common schools. 

This lesson of equality, the perfect system which has been 
developed by this method of instruction, is training a valued class of 
citizens to take up the responsibiHties of government when we shall 
lay them down. [Applause.] I hope every one of your communi- 
ties, even your scattered rural communities, will pursue this good 
work. I am sure this hope is shared by my honored host, Gov. 
Hogg, who sits beside me — [applause] — and who, in the discharge 
of his public duties, can influence the progress of this great measure. 
No material greatness, no wealth, no accumulation of splendor is to 
be compared with those humb e and homely virtues which have 
generally characterized our American homes. 

The safety of the State, the good order of the community — 
all that is good — the capacity, indeed, to produce material wealth, is 
dependent upon intelligence and social order. [Applause.] Wealth 
and commerce are timid creatures; they must be assured that the 
nest will be safe before they build. So it is always in those com- 
munities where the most perfect order is maintained, where intel- 
ligence is protected, where the church of God and the institutions 
of religion are revered and respected, that we find the largest 
development in material wealth. [Applause.] 

Thanking you for your cordial greeting, thanking all your 
people, and especially the Governor of your State, for courtesies 
which have been unfailing; for a cordiality and friendliness that has 
not found any stint or repression in the fact that we are of different 
political opinions [great cheering], I beg to thank you for this 
special manifestation of respect, and to ask you to excuse me from 
further speech. I shall follow such arrangements as your committee 
have made, and shall be glad if in those arrangements there is some 
provision by which I may meet as many of you as possible individu- 
ally. [Prolonged cheering.] 



38 
APRIL 21— DEL RIO, TEXAS. 

One of the incidents of the run from San Antonio to El 
Paso was the hearty reception given the President at the 
village of Del Rio, Texas. The inhabitants, mostly of Mexican 
origin, turned out in full force, and the school children presented 
an address of welcome. The whole village was brilliantl}^ 
decorated with American colors and flowers. The President 
was called upon for a speech and responded as follows : 

FOREIGN MARKETS FOR AMERICAN MEAT PRODUCTS 

My Friends : I had supposed when we left San Antonio that 
we were not to be stopped very often between that point and El Paso 
with such assemblages of our fellow citizens. We had settled down 
to an easy way of living on the train, and I had supposed that speech- 
making would not be taken up until to-morrow. I thank you most 
cordially for this friendly evidence of your interest, and I assure you 
that all of these matters to which your spokesman has alluded, are 
having the most careful consideratioa of the authorities at Washing- 
ton, The Secretary of Agriculture, who is with me on the train, has 
been diligent in an effort to open European markets for American 
meats, and he has succeeded so far that our exportation has very 
largely increased in the last year. It is our hope that these restric- 
tions may still further be removed, and that American meat pro- 
ducts may have a still larger market in Europe than they have had 
for very many years past. The inspections now provided by law 
certainly must remove every reasonable objection to the use of 
American meats ; for we shall demonstrate to them that they are 
perfectly wholesome and pure. I want to say, from the time of my 
induction into office until this hour, I have had before me constantly 
the need of the American farmer for a larger market for his products. 
(Cries of "Good, good," and cheers.) Whatever we can do to accom- 
plish that will be done. I want to thank the public school children 
for this address which they have placed in my hands. What a 
blessed thing it is that the public school system is found with the 
pioneer ! It follows the buffalo very closely. I am glad to find that 
your children are being trained in intelligence, and in those moral 
restraints which shall make them good citizens. I thank you for 
your kindly presence. 



39 
EL PASO, TEXAS. 

It was a great and motley throng that greeted President 
Harrison at Kl Paso on Tuesday morning at 8 o'clock (Pacific 
time). Americans, Indians and Mexicans made up the throng, 
and on the platform beside the President stood the Governor 
of the Mexican State of Chihuahua, who brought the compli- 
ments of President Diaz of Mexico to President Harrison of 
the United States. The President spoke as follows : 

A GATEWAY OF COMMERCE AND OF FRIENDSHIP. 

My Fellow Citizens : I have been journeying for several 
days throughout the great State of Texas. We are now about to 
leave her territory and receive from you this parting salutation. Our 
entrance into the State was with every demonstration of respect and 
enthusiasm. This is a fitting close to the magnificent expression 
which the people of this State have given to us. I am glad to stand 
at this gateway of trade with the great republic of Mexico. [Cries of 
'* Hear, hear," and cheers.] I am glad to know that it is not only a 
gateway of commerce, but a gateway of friendship [cheers] ; that not 
only do these hurrying vehicles of commerce bear the products of the 
fields and mines in mutual exchange, but that they have facilitated 
those personal relations which have promoted and must yet more 
promote the frendliness of two independent liberty-loving peoples. 
[Cheers.] 

I receive with great satisfaction these tributes of respect which 
have been brought to me by the Governor of Chihuahua and the 
representatives of the army of Mexico. [Cheers.] I desire to return 
to them and through them to the people of Mexico and to that illus- 
trious and progressive statesman who presides over her destinies 
[cheers] not only my sincere personal regard, but an assurance of the 
friendliness and respect of the American Government and the 
American people. I look forward with interest to a larger develop- 
ment of our trade ; to the opening of new lines of commerce and new 
avenues of friendship. We have passed that era in our history, I 
hope, when we were aggressive and unpleasant neighbors. We do not 
covet the territory of any other people [cheers], but do covet 
their friendship and those trade exchanges which are mutually 
profitable. [Cheers. ] 



40 

THE FOUNDATION OF SOCIAL ORDER. 

And now to you, my fellow citizens, I bring congratulations for 
the rapid development which you are making here, and extend the 
most cordial good wishes for the realization of every hope you have 
for El Paso and its neighborhood. [Cheers.] All republics are 
builded on the respect and confidence of the people. They are 
enduring and stable as their institutions and their rulers continue to 
preserve their respect. I rejoice that those influences that tend to 
soften the asperities of human life — the home, the school and the 
church — have kept pace with the enterprises of commerce, and are 
established here among you. All commerce and trade rest upon the 
foundation of social order. 

You cannot attract an increased citizenship except as you give to 
the world a reputation for social order [cheers], in which crime is 
suppressed, in which the rights of .the humble are respected [cheers], 
and where the courts stand as the safe bulwark of the personal and 
public rights of every citizen, however poor. [Cheers.] I trust that 
as your city grows you will see that these foundations are carefully 
and broadly laid, and then you may hope that the superstructure, 
magnificent in its dimensions, perfect in its security and grace, shall 
rise in your midst. [Cheers.] 

BLESSINGS TO VICTORS AND VANQUISHED. 

I am glad to meet my comrades of the Grand Army of the 
Republic [cheers], the survivors of the grand struggle for the Union. 
It was one of the few wars in history that brought blessings to the 
"victors and vanquished," and was followed by no proscriptions, no 
block, no executions, but by the reception of those who had striven 
for the destruction of the country into friendly citizenship, laying 
upon them no yoke that was not borne by the veterans, that of obe- 
dience to the law and a due respect for the rights of others. [Cheers.] 

Again, Sir (to the Mexican representative), I thank you for the 
friendly greeting you have brought from across this narrow river that 
separates us, and to you, my fellow countrymen, I extend my thanks 
and bid you good-bye. [Prolonged cheers.] 

ON THE NEW MEXICO PLAINS. 

As the train was speeding over the plains to New Mexico, 
Governor Prince made the following address of welcome to 
the President : 



41 

GOV. PRINCE'S WELCOME. 

As we crossed the Rio Grande we entered the confines of New 
Mexico, and I wish on behalf of all our people to express our high 
gratification at your visit and to extend our heartiest welcome to 
the Territory. We welcome you not only as the Chief Magistrate of 
the Nation, but especially as the President, who has shown the great- 
est interest in our welfare and who has done the most to promote it. 
Thirteen Presidents have held office since New Mexico became part 
of the United States, but no Presidential utterance ever referred to our 
Territory and our interests until you did so in your annual message 
in 1889, when you urged action by Congress for the speedy settle- 
ment of our land titles. For forty years New Mexico has suffered 
from the uncertainty of these titles, and that message, supplemented 
by the special message of last July, and by the active interest of mem- 
bers of the Cabinet, has brought to us the greatest boon in our 
history and opened a future of vast prosperity. Our people feel the 
deepest gratitude for this recognition and timely aid, and our official 
welcome is made personally more heartfelt on this account. 

The President responded briefly, thanking the Governor for 
his words of welcome, and assured him of the interest he felt 
in the people of the territory. 



DEMING, NEW MEXICO. 

The President was received with military salutes and a great 
display of bunting at Deming, New Mexico. In reply to the 
speech of welcome, he said : 

NEW MEXICO LAND TITLES. 

My Fellow Citizens : It gives me great pleasure to tarry for a 
moment here and to receive out on these broad and sandy plains the 
same evidence of friendliness that has greeted me in the States. I 
feel great interest in your people, and thinking that you have labored 
under a disadvantage by reason of the unsettled state of your land 
titles, because no country can settle up and become populous whUe 
the titles to its land remain insecure, it was my pleasure to urge upon 
Congress, both in a general and special message, the establishment of 
a special land court to settle this question once for all. [Cheers.] 

I am glad that the statute is now a law, and immediately upon 
my return from this trip I expect to announce the judges of that 



42 

court, and to set them immediately to work upon these cases, so that 
you shall certainly, within two years, have all these questions settled. 
I hope you will then see an increase of population that has not 
as yet been possible, and which will tend to develop your great min- 
eral resources and open up your lands to settlement. Thanking you, 
on behalf of our party, for this pleasant greeting, I bid you good-bye. 
[Cheers.] 

LORDSBURG, NEW MEXICO. 

It was 3.30 o'clock on Tuesday aftemooo, April 21, when 
the President's train stopped at Lordsburg, New Mexico. Post- 
master Kenzie, on behalf of the citizens, welcomed the President, 
and presented him with a case of elegant silver, mined in the 
vicinity. The case was inscribed : 

" Protect the chief industry of our Territories. Give us free 
coinage of silver." 

The President, in accepting the gift, responded : 

I thank you very much for this elegant souvenir, and assure 
you due care will be taken of your interests. 

Three cheers w^ere given as the train drew out of the station. 

TUCSON, ARIZONA. 

A short stop was made at Tucson, Arizona, which was brill- 
iantly illuminated in the President's honor. The train arrived 
promptly on time, and after a military salute the President spoke 
to the crowd. He said : 

PROGRESS OF THE TERRITORIES. 

My Fellow Citizens : It is surprising as well as gratifying to 
see so many friends assembled to greet us on our arrival at Tucson 
to-night. I beg to assure you that the interests of the Territories are 
very close to my heart. By reason of my service as Chairman of the 
Territory Committee in the United States Senate, I was brought to study 
in very closely the needs of the Territories. I have had great pleasure 
issuing the proclamations admitting five Territories to the sisterhood 
of States since I became President. I realize the condition of the 



43 

people of the Territory without having representation in Congress as 
one of disadvantage, and I am friendly to the suggestion that these 
Territories, as they have sufficient population to sustain a State gov- 
ernment and to secure suitable administration of their own affairs 
shall be received into the Union. [Cheers.] It will be gratifying 
to me if you shall come into that condition during the time that 
I occupy the Presidential chair. [Cheers.] I thank you again for 
your cordial demonstration, and beg to present to you that gentle- 
man of the Cabinet who has charge of the postal affairs, Mr. Wana- 
maker. [Prolonged cheers.] 

Mr. Wanamaker made a few remarks. 



APRIL 22— INDIO, GAL. 

The heat and dust in crossing the Colorado Desert had 
nearly worn out the part}^, but as they entered the beautiful 
valley on the borders of California the President was greeted at 
Indio by a tremendous crowd of people, among whom were many 
Indians, including Chief Cabezon, chief of the Indio tribe of 
Indians, who is over loo years of age. The chief presented an 
address to the President. Governor Markham, of California, 
met the party at this place, and in a long speech welcomed the 
President to California. 

LOOKING FORWARD TO CALIFORNIA. 

The President, in reply, said he would not undertake, while 
almost choked with the dust of the plains he had just left, to say all 
that he hoped to say in the way of pleasant greetings to the citizens 
of California. Some time, when he had been refreshed by their olive 
oil and their vineyards, he would endeavor to express his gratification 
at being able to visit California. He had long desired to visit Cali- 
fornia, and it was the objective point of this trip. He had seen the 
northern coast and Puget Sound, but had never before 'been able to 
see California. He remembered from boyhood the excitement of the 
discovery of gold, and had always distantly followed California's 
growth and progress. The acquisition of California was second only 
to that of Louisiana and the control of the Mississippi River. It 
secured us this great coast, and made impossible the ownership of ? 



44 

foreign power on any of our coast line. It has helped to perfect our 
magnificent isolation, which is our great protection against foreign 
aggression. He thanked the Governor and committee for their 
kindly reception, and assured them that if he should have any com- 
plaints to make of his treatment in California it would be because its 
people had been too hospitable. 



COLTON, CAL. 

The part}^ arrived at Colton early in the morning of Wednes- 
day, and were welcomed by a large and enthusiastic crowd, 
nearly all of whom pressed up to the platform of the train and 
shook hands with the President, who was introduced by Governor 
Markham and made the following address : 

3500 MILES OF FRIENDLY GREETING. 

My Fellow Citizens: We have traveled now something more 
than 3500 miles. They have been 3500 miles of cordial greeting from 
my fellow citizens ; they have been 3500 miles of perpetual talk. It 
would require a brain more fertile in resources, more diversified in its 
operations than the State of California in its productions, to say 
something original or interesting at each one of these stopping places; 
but I can say always with a warm heart to my fellow citizens who 
greet me so cordially, who look to me out of such kindly faces, I 
thank you ; I am your servant in all things that will conduce to the 
general prosperity and happiness of the American people. 

Remote from us of the far East in distance, we are united to 
you not only by the ties of a common citizenship, by the reverence 
and honor we joyfully give to the one flag, but by those interchanges 
of emigration which have brought so many of the people of the older 
States to you. At every station where I have stopped since entering 
California some Hoosier has reached up his hand to greet me (laughter 
and cheers), and the omnipresent Ohio man, of course, I have found 
everywhere. I was assured by these gentlemen that they were mak- 
ing their full contributions to the development of your country, and 
that they have possessed themselves of their fair share of it. 

I have been greatly pleased this morning to come out of the 
land of the desert and the drifting sand into this land of homes 
and smiling women and bright children. I have been glad to see 
these beautiful gardens and these fertile fields, and to know that you 



45 

are now, by the economical collection and distribution of the waters 
of the hills, making all these valleys to smile like the garden of Eden. 
We do not come as spies to look at your land with any view of 
dispossessing you, as the original spies went into Palestine. We 
come simply' to exchange friendly greetings, and we shall hope to 
carry away nothing that does not belong to us, (Cheers). 

If we shall leave your happy and prosperous State freighted 
with your good will and love, as we shall leave ours with you, it will 
be a happy exchange. (Cheers.) 



ONTARIO, CAL. 

On arrival at Ontario a most cordial reception was given to the 
President, and his train was literally filled with floral offerings. 
A crowd gathered around and shook hands with the President, 
and one little boy approached Mr. Harrison and said, "I was 
named after Grover Cleveland, but I take this opportunity of 
wishing you every blessing." The President shook his hand 
cordially and wished him well. 

THREE CHEERS FOR IRRIGATION. 

In response to repeated calls for a speech the President said he 
thanked them very much, but he had been under such stress in the 
way of speech-making that they would have to wait until his brain 
was irrigated before he had anything else to say. Some one in the 
crowd here proposed three cheers for irrigation, and the response 
was heartily given. The President, continuing, said he was glad to 
look into the faces of American citizens ; that he did not believe 
such assemblages of bright, intelligent, industrious, thrifty people 
could be brought together anywhere else in the v.-orld as were gath- 
ered about the railroad stations passed by him on his trip through 
the country. The faces of the people showed that they came from 
good homes, where there were good fathers and mothers, who were 
held in reverence and respect by their children. 

As the President finished speaking three rousing cheers were 
given and a shower of bouquets were thrown at the train of the 
party. One large bunch of roses hit the President — who was 



46 

standing on the rear platform of his car — in the eye, causing a 
bad wound which gave him some annoyance for several days 
afterwards. 

BANNING, CAL. 

A short stop was made at Banning, and the President listened 
to an address of welcome b}^ Mr. Louis Munson, editor of the 
Banning Herald. The President replied in a few words thanking 
Mr. Munson and the citizens for their welcome. Two days after 
this, as the President was entering Arlington, near Riverside, Cal., 
Mr. Munson, who had come across the country to welcome the 
part}^ again, was stricken with heart disease and died as the 
train passed by. The sad incident caused the President and the 
party much sorrow, for they remembered with pleasure the gen- 
tleman and his happy address of two days before. 

POMONA, CAL. 

At Pomona a large committee took charge of the President's 
car and decorated it with floral banners and garlands. Bach per- 
son in his party was presented with baskets of flowers and fruits. 
The President, when he appeared on the rear platform of his car, 
was loudly cheered, and made the following speech : 

NEW IMPULSES TO PUBLIC DUTY. 

This cordial demonstration of respect, these friendly greetings, 
make me your debtor. I beg to thank you for it all, and out of 
such gatherings as these, out of the friendly manifestations you have 
given me on my entrance to California, I hope to get new impulses to 
a more faithful and diligent discharge of the public duties which my 
fellow citizens have devolved upon me. No man can feel himself 
adequate to these responsible functions, but I am sure if you shall 
judge your public servants to be conscientiously devoted to your 
interests, to the bringing to the discharge of their public duties a con- 



47 

scientious fidelity and the best intelligence with which they are en- 
dowed, you will pardon any shortcoming. Again, I thank you for 
your friendliness and beg you to excuse me from further speech. 



LOS ANGELES, CAL. 

It was 3 o'clock in the afternoon when the President 
reached Los Angeles. He was driven throtigh the town and 
pelted with flowers by the school children, and at the grand 
stand, erected in the centre of the city, he was welcomed by the 
Mayor. In reply he made the following address : 

GLORIFYING THE STARS AND STRIPES. 

My Fellow Citizens : My stay among you will not be long 
enough to form an individual judgment of the quality of your peo- 
ple, but it has been long enough already to get a large idea of the 
number of them. [Cheers.] I beg of you to accept my sincere 
thanks for this magnificent demonstration of your respect. I do not 
at all assume that these huzzas and streamers and banners with 
which you have greeted me to-day are a tribute to me individually. 
I receive them as a most assuring demonstration of the love of the 
people of California for American institutions. [Great and pro- 
longed cheering.] And well are these institutions worthy of all 
honor. The flag that you have displayed here to-day, the one flag, 
the banner of the free and the symbol of the indissoluble union of 
the States, is worthy of the affections of our people. Men have 
died for it on the field of battle ; women have consecrated it with 
their tears and prayers as they placed the standard in the hands of 
brave men on the morning of battle. It is historically full of tender 
interest and pride. It has a glorious story on the sea in those times 
when the American navy maintained our prestige and successfully 
beat the navies of our great antagonist. [Cheers.] 

A magnificent DOiVIAIN. 

It has a proud record from the time of our great struggle for 
independence down to the last sad conflict between our own citizens. 
We bless God to-day that these brave men who, working out His 
purpose on the field of battle, made it again the symbol of a united 
people. (Cheers.) Our institutions, of which this flag is an emblem, 
are free institutions. These men and women into whose faces I look 
are free men and women. I do not honor you by my presence here 



48 

to-day. I hold my trust from you and you honor me in this recep- 
tion. (Great cheers.) This magnificent domain on the Pacific coast, 
seized for the Union by the energy and courage and wise forethought 
of Fremont and his associates, is essential to our perfection. Nothing 
more important in territorial extension, unless it be the purchase of 
the territory of Louisiana and the control of the Mississippi River, 
has ever occurred in our national history. (Great cheering.) We 
touch two oceans, and on both we have built commonwealths and 
great cities, thus securing in that territory individuality and associa- 
tion, which give us an assurance of perpetual peace. (Cheers.) 
No great conflict of arms can ever take place on American soil if we 
are true to ourselves and have forever determined that no civil 
ccnflict shall again rend our country. (Cheers.) 

OUR PO ?TS SHALL BE SAFE. 

We are a peace-loving nation, and yet we cannot be sure that 
everybody else will be peaceful, and therefore I am glad that by the 
general consent of our people and by the liberal appropriations from 
Congress, we are putting on the sea some of the best vessels of their 
class afloat [cheers], and that we are now prepared to put upon their 
decks as good guns as are made in the world ; and when we have com- 
pleted our programme ship by ship, we will put in their forecastles as 
brave Jack Tars as serve under any flag. [Great cheering.] The 
provident care of our government should be given to your sea-coast 
defenses until all these great ports of the Atlantic and Pacific are 
made safe. [Cheers.] 

But, my countrymen, this audience overmatches a voice that 
has been in exercise from Roanoke, Va., to Los Angeles. I beg you, 
therefore, again to receive my most hearty thanks and excuse me 
from further speech. [Great and prolonged cheering.] 



LOS ANGELES, CAL. 

After dinner the President was escorted to the pavilion at Los 
Angeles and a reception v/as held. An attempt was made at 
hand-shaking, but the crowd was so great that the President had 
to desist, and he addressed the people instead, speaking as follows : 

A NOxNT-PARTISAN GREETING. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : I thank you for the warm greeting 
that } ou have given me and the royal welcome vou have extended to 



49 

my party and myself to your lovely city. 1 am thoroughly aware of 
the non-partisan character of this gathering, and appreciate the good 
will with which you have gathered here in this vast building to 
receive me. I had a touching evidence of the non-partisan character 
of this gathering — and the good will as well — just now when a man 
said to me : ''I want to shake hands with you, even if I did lose a 
thousand dollars on your election." There will be no trouble to keep 
the flame of patriotism and love of country glowing so long as the 
American people thus manifest their loyalty to the officers whom the 
will of the people has placed in power. I thank you again for your 
good will and hearty welcome. 

APRIL 23— SAN DIEGO, CAL. 

The President arrived at San Diego at 7:30 o'clock, Thurs- 
day, April 23, and went at once to Coronado Beach Hotel. Here 
he was met by the Indiana residents of San Diego, who presented 
him with an address of welcome. Mr. Wright made the presenta- 
tion speech. The President responded as follows : 

INTERMINGLING. 

My Friends : I regret that I can only say thank you. Our time 
is now due to the citizens of San Diego and I have promised not to 
detain that committee. It is particularly pleasurable to me to see, as 
I have done at almost every station where our train stopped, some 
Indianian, who stretched up the hand of old neighborship to greet 
me as I passed along. It is this intermingling of our people which 
sustains the merit of the home. The Yankee intermingles with the 
Illinoisian, the Hoosier with the Sucker and the people of the South 
with them all; and it is this commingling which gives that unity 
which marks the American nation. 

I am glad to know that there are so many of you here, and as I 
said to some Hoosiers as I came along, I hope you have secured 
your share of these blessings. 

SAN DIEGO, CAL. 

The formal address of welcome to San Diego was made by 
Mayor Gunn. A parade through the city came immediately after 
breakfast and ended at the grand stand in front of the Plaza. 



50 

Mayor Gunn read his address of welcome, and when he finished 
the President arose, amid a storm of applause, and answered as 
follows : 

OUR SOUTHWESTERN-MOST HARBOR. 

Mr. Mayor and Fellow Citizens : I am in slavery to a rail- 
road schedule and have but ^a few moments longer to tarry in your 
beautiful city. If there were no other reward for our journey acrors 
the continent, we have seen to-day about your magnificent harbor 
that which would have repaid us for all the toil of travel. [Applause.] 

I do not come to tell you anything about California, for I have 
perceived in my intercourse with Californians in the East and 
during this brief stay among you, that already you know all 
about California. [Laughter.] 

You are, indeed, most happily situated. Every element that 
makes life comfortable is here; every possibility that makes life 
successful and prosperous is here, and I am sure, as I look into those 
kindly, upturned faces, that your homes have as healthful a moral 
atmosphere as the natural one that God has spread over your smiling 
land. 

It is with regret that we now part from you. The welcome you 
have extended to us is magnificent, kindly and tasteful. We shall 
carry away the most pleasant impression, and shall wish for you all 
that you anticipate in your largest dreams for your beautiful city — 
[cheers] — that your harbor may be full of foreign and coastwise 
traffic, that it may not be long until the passage of our naval and 
merchant marine shall not be by the Horn, but by Nicaragua. 
[Cheers.] I believe that great enterprise, which is to bring your 
commerce into nearer and cheaper contact with the Atlantic sea- 
board cities, both of this continent and of South America, will not be 
long delayed. 

And now, again, with most grateful thanks for your friendly 
attention in my own behalf and in behalf of all who journey with me, 
I bid you a most kindly farewell. [Prolonged cheers.] 

greeting from president DIAZ OF MEXICO. 

When the President finished his address to the citizens, Gov- 
ernor Torres of Lower California, in his uniform of Major-General 
of the Mexican Army, arose and, approaching the President, said : 

I have received a telegram which I have the honor to read to 
you. The translation is as follows : 



51 

" It has come to my knowledge that the President of the United 
States, Hon. Benjamin Harrison, shall visit San Diego on the 23d 
instant, and I let you know it, so that you may call to congratulate 
him in my name and present him with my compliments. 

"(Signed) Porfirio Diaz." 

Replying to Governor Torres, the President said : 

GOOD WILL FOR MEXICO. 

Governor Torres : This message from that progressive and 
intelligent gentleman who presides over the destinies of our sister Re- 
public is most grateful to me. I assure you that all our people, that 
the Government, through all its instituted authorities, entertain for 
President Diaz and for the chivalrous people over which he presides 
the most friendly sentiments of respect. (Cheers and applause.) We 
covet. Sir, your good will and those mutual exchanges which are 
mutually profitable, and we hope that the two Republics may forever 
dwell in fraternal peace. 

As the President sat down Governor Torres remarked: "The 
Mexican people respond heartily to your kind wishes." 



SANTA ANA, CAL. 

A short stop was made at Santa Ana on the return from San 
Diego. It was the first of a number of short visits to the cities 
of Southern California. A great crowd had gathered around the 
stand near the depot, and among them were school children and 
veterans of the civil war. Hon. W. H. Spurgeon, the patriarchal 
father and founder of the city, introduced the President, and Prof. 
Manley delivered the address of welcome. When he finished the 
President advanced to the front of the platform and spoke as 
follows ; 

A POLICY BROAD AS THE CONTINENT. 

My Fellow Citizens: I have already proved your hospitality. 
It is very, very generous, and it is very graceful. I have but one 
doubt in regard to it, and that is whether I can stand so much of it. 
[Laughter and applause.] It has given me great gladness of heart to 
look into your faces. I have been discharging some public business 
far remote from you, and I hope with some concern for your interest. 



52 

for I have tried to take a wide view of public questions and to have 
in my mind a thought of the people of this great land. 

Our politics should be as broad as the territory over which our 
people have spread. It is a part of the history of the country which 
has always kept in memory the safety and interests of those who 
pushed civiHzation to the Rocky Mountains and over its rugged 
peaks into these fruitful valleys. ' I am glad to see here this afternoon 
these little children. The order in which they have assembled gives 
me assurance that they have come from the schoolhouses, those nurse- 
ries of knowledge and common interests in our American States. 

I am glad that you grow not only the olive tree in your garden, 
but that to the olive trees that are planted in the household and 
bloom about your table you give your greatest attention. Now thank- 
ing you very kindly, and confessing very humbly that I am not able 
to repay you for your generous welcome, and leaving to all these little 
ones my best hopes for useful, prosperous and honorable lives, I bid 
you all good-bye. 



ORANGE, CAL. 

A short stop was made at Orauge, and a great crowd wel- 
comed the President. In response to an address of welcome Mr. 
Harrison thanked the committee for their kind words and the 
people for their welcoming cheers and presence. 

RIVERSIDE, CAL. 

The President arrived at South Riverside at 5 o'clock in the 
afternoon. He left the train and was photographed standing on 
a low platform with his left hand resting on a column of block tin, 
mined and manufactured in the immediate vicinity. Arriving at 
Arlington Station, a procession was formed and proceeded to 
Riverside. Here at least 10,000 people welcomed the distin- 
guished visitors. The President visited the orange groves and 
plucked some of the fruit. On the return to the train the 
President stopped in front of the High School, and after being 
introduced by Hon. S. C. Evans, spoke as follows : 



53 

A GLORIOUS FRUITAGE. 

My trip from Washington has been full of pleasures and surprises, 
but nothing has given me greater surprise and more pleasure than the 
drive of this afternoon through this beautiful valley of Riverside. I 
am glad you are interested in the cultivation of children as well as 
oranges, and I trust that they may be kept as free from evil as your 
orange orchards are from weeds. Then will the fruitage of their 
young lives be as glorious as that of your orchards is famous. As the 
time for our departure has already arrived, I can only repeat the 
pleasure it has afforded me to have met you, the remembrance of 
which shall always give rise to thoughts of greatest delight. Good 
afternoon and good-bye. 



SAN BERNARDINO, CAL. 

A few minutes were given to San Bernardino. The train was 
surrounded immediately after stopping by a large crowd of 
people, and in response to an address of welcome by the Ma^^or, 
the President responded as follows : 

ONE PEOPLE, EAST AND WEST. 

Mr. Mayor and Fellow Citizens : I can only repeat to you 
what I have already had occasion to say to many similar audiences 
assembled in California, that I am delighted with my visit to the 
Pacific coast; that much as I had heard of the richness and high 
cultivation, what I have seen to-day in this great valley has far 
surpassed my expectations. You have subdued an unpromising soil 
and made it blossom as the rose; but better than all the fruits and 
harvests, and better than all the products of the field is this intelligent 
population which out of their kindly faces extend to us a greeting 
wherever we go. 

I am glad, coming from the far East, to observe how greatly our 
people are alike. But that is not surprising, because I find all 
through this valley many Hoosiers and Buckeyes I knew at home. 
It is not singular that you should be alike when you are really and 
truly the same people, not only in lineage and general characteristics, 
but the same men and women we have known in the older States. 
And now I thank you again, and beg you will excuse me from further 
speech, with the assurance that if it were in my power I would 
double the rich blessings which you already enjoy. [Cheers.] 



54 

PASADENA, CAL. 

The Presidential train rolled into Pasadena at 7.30 p.m., 
April 23d. The town was beautifully illuminated, and amid 
firing of cannon, ringing of bells and the cheering of the 
populace the President left the train and drove to the hotel. 
Huge bonfires lighted the route of the procession, and soldiers 
and civil organizations escorted the President to the hotel. A 
short public reception followed the arrival. The party were enter- 
tained by a banquet at night, and in response to the toast by the 
postmaster, W. U. Masters, to the President, Mr. Harrison 
responded as follows : 

HOOSIERS EVERYWHERE. 

Gentlemen : I beg you to accept my thanks for this banquet 
spread in honor of this community of strangers who have dropped in 
upon you to-night. We come to you after dark. I am not, therefore, 
prepared to speak of Pasadena. When the sun shall have lightened 
your landscape again, and our expectant eyes shall have rested upon its 
glories, I shall be able to give you my impressions of your city, which 
I am already prepared to believe is one of the gems in the crown of 
California. [Applause.] 

Perhaps no other place in California has by name been more 
familiar to me than Pasadena, if you except your great commercial 
city of San Francisco. That comes from the fact that many of your 
early settlers were Indiana friends. I am glad to meet some of these 
friends here to-night. It is pleasant to renew these old acquaintances, 
to find that they have been received with esteem in this new com- 
munity. I have found a line of Hoosiers all along these railroads we 
have been traversing. 

Everywhere our train has stopped some Hoosier has lifted his 
hand to me, and often by dozens. As I said the other day, Ohio 
men identify themselves to me by reason of that State being my birth- 
place, but it is not a surprise to me to find an Ohio man anywhere. 
[I>aughter.] Ohio people are especially apt to be found in the vicinity 
of a public office. [Laughter.] I suppose whatever good fortune has 
come to me in the way of political preferment must be traced to the 
fact that I am a Buckeye by birth. [Laughter.] And now I thank 
you most cordially again for your attention and kindness. California 
has been full of the most affectionate interest to us. I have never 



55 

looked into the faces of a more happy and intelligent people than 
those I have seen on the Pacific coast. [Applause.] 

You occupy the most important position in the sisterhood of 
States, stretching for these several hundred miles along the Pacific 
shore. You have fortunate birth, and your history has been a succes- 
sion of fortunate surprises. You have wrought out here great achieve- 
ments in converting these plains that seemed to be so unpromising to 
the eye into such gardens as cannot be seen anywhere else upon the 
continent. [Applause.] 

And now, when I remind you that bedtime was i o'clock last 
night and the reveille sounded at 6 o'clock this morning on our car, 
I am sure you will permit me to say good-night. [Applause.] 

APRIL 24— SAN FERNANDO, CAL. 

The first stop after leaving Pasadena on Friday morning for 

Santa Barbara was San Fernando. The train stopped under a 

floral arcli, and the President was introduced by William H. 

Hawks (formerly of Indiana), and spoke as follows : 

It is very pleasant to see you this morning, and especially to be 
greeted by an old Indiana neighbor resident now among you. I hope 
he is held in the same estimation here as he was in Indiana. I 
thank you all for your friendly greeting. 

SANTA PAULA, CAL. 

One of the first things that greeted the President on arriving 
at Santa Paula was an immense floral sign-board, twelve feet 
long and three feet broad, made of callas. Across its face 
was the word "Welcome," in red geraniums. Just as the train 
stopped, a committee of citizens boarded it, and presented the 
President with a floral tribute, representing a five-foot model of 
an oil derrick. The crowd called for a speech, and the President, 
appearing on the platform of his car, addressed them as follows : 

A HAPPY AND CONTENTED PEOPLE. 

My Friends : I cannot feel myself a stranger in this State, so dis- 
tant from home, when I am greeted by some familiar faces from my 
Indiana home at almost every station. Your fellow citizen who has 



56 

spoken in your behalf was an old-time Indianapolis friend. I hope he 
is held in the same esteem in which he was held by the people among 
whom he spent his early years as a boy and man. (Cries of "He is.") 
That you should have gone to the pains to make such magnificent 
decorations and to come out in such large numbers for this moment- 
ary greeting, very deeply touches^ my heart. 

I have never seen in any State of the Union what seems to me 
to be a more happy and contented people than I have seen this 
morning. Your soil and sun are genial, healthful and productive, 
and I have no doubt that these genial and kindly influences are 
manifested in the homes that are represented here, and that there is 
sunshine in the household as well as in the fields; that there is con- 
tentment and love and sweetness in these homes as well as in these 
gardens that are so adorned with flowers. Our pathway has been 
strewn with flowers ; we have literally driven for miles over flowers 
that in the East would have been priceless, and these favors have all 
been accompanied with manifestations of friendliness for which I am 
very grateful, and everywhere there has been set up as having greater 
glory than sunshine, greater glory than flowers, this flag of our 
country. (Applause.) Everywhere 1 have been greeted by some of 
these comrades, veterans of the late war, whose presence among you 
should be the inspiration to increased patriotism and loyalty. I bid 
them affectionate greeting, and am sorry that I cannot tarry with 
them longer. (Cheers.) 

SAN BUENA VENTURA, CAL. 

Before reaching Santa Barbara, a stop of fifteen minutes was 
made at San Buena Ventura. Here the President was greeted 
by the local militia and the G. A. R. A committee of ladies pre- 
sented him with several baskets of flowers and Japanese plums. 
Ex-Congressman Vaudever welcomed the party, and in response 
to the general call from the crowd, the President replied as fol- 
lows : 

My Friends : I am very glad to meet my old friend and your 
former representative. General Vandever. I have had some sur- 
prise at almost every station at which we have stopped. I did not 
know until he came upon the platform that this was his home. I 
have not time to make a speech, and I have not the voice to make one 
I can only say of these hearty and friendly Calif ornians that my hear 



57 

is deeply touched with this evidence of friendly regard. You have 
strewn my way with flowers ; you have graced every occasion, even 
the briefest stop, with a most friendly greeting, and I assure you that 
we are most grateful for it all. You are fortunate in your location 
among the States ; and I am sure that in all this great republic no- 
where is there a more loyal and patriotic people than we have here 
on the Pacific coast. I thank you again for this greeting. (Cheers.) 



SANTA BARBARA, CAL. 

The beautiful Spanish reception at Santa Barbara was espec- 
ially grateful to the President. He enjoyed the whole evening, 
especially the battle of flow^ers, which was participated in by ladies 
and gentlemen in open carriages covered wdth flowers and gar- 
lands. The floral display at this place w^as the most magnificent 
of the trip. The President viewed the battle here from a grand 
stand erected for the purpose, and richly covered with flow^ers. It 
is estimated that 20,000 callas were used in decorating this 
platform alone. After the battle the President and entire party, 
including ladies, visited the Santa Barbara Mission, and w^ere re- 
ceived by Rev. Mr. O'Keefe, the Superior. The entire party w^ere 
admitted to the Mission, this being the second time any ladies 
had ever been admitted wdthin the sacred precinct. Princess Louise 
of England being the only other lady thus honored. At night the 
President and party witnessed the Spanish dancing by the ladies 
and gentlemen who had participated in the battle. The President 
remarked that he had enjo3^ed the evening the more because he 
had been made the spectator and not the attraction of the enter- 
tainment. At the reception at night the President shook hands 
wdth over 13,000 people, and then in response to an address of 
welcome by Gen. Vandever, spoke as follows : 
flowery santa barbara. 

General Vandever, Gentlemen of the Committee and 
Friends : If I have been in any doubt as to the fact of the perfect 



5^ 

identity of your people with the American nation, that doubt has been 
displaced by one incident which has been prominent in all this trip, 
and that is that the great and predominant and all-pervading Ameri- 
can habit of demanding a speech on every occasion has been charac- 
teristically prominent in California. (Laughter.) I am more than 
delighted by this visit to your' city. It has been made brilliant with 
the display of banners and flowers — one the emblem of our national 
greatness and prowess, the other the adornment which God has 
given to beautify nature. With all this I am sure I have read in the 
faces of the men, women and children who have greeted me that 
these things — these flowers of the field and this flag, representing 
organized government — typify what is to be found in the homes of 
California. The expression of your welcome to-day has been unique 
and tasteful beyond description. I have not the words to express the 
high sense of appreciation and the amazement that filled the minds 
of all our party as we looked upon this display which you have impro- 
vised for our reception. No element of beauty, no element of taste, no 
element of gracious kindness has been lacking in it, and for that we 
tender you all our most hearty thanks. We shall keep this visit a 
bright spot in our memories. [Applause.] 



APRIL 25— BAKERSFIELD, CAL. 

The Presidential party left Santa Barbara at 10 o'clock on 
Friday night, and were up at 6 o'clock on Saturday morning, 
and had a splendid view of the Tehachapi Mountains on their 
way to the Valley of San Joaquin. They also saw the cele- 
brated railroad loop at that point by early morning light. The 
first stop was at Bakersfield at 8.30 o'clock. The President 
was introduced to the assembled crowd by Judge A. R. Conk- 
ling, and was about to make a speech when he was assailed 
by a shower of flowers and had to retreat to his car. The 
deluge ceased at the request of the committee, and the Presi- 
dent again appeared and spoke to the crowd as follows : 

NOT MEN, BUT INSTITUTIONS. 

My Friends : I am very much obliged to you for your friendly 
greeting and for these bouquets. You must excuse me if I seem a little 
shy of the bouquets. I received one in my eye the other day which 



59 

gave me a good deal of trouble. You are very kind to meet us here so 
early in the morning with this cordial demonstration. It has been a 
very long journey, and has been accompanied with some fatigue of 
travel, but we feel this morning, in this exhilarating air and this sweet 
sunshine, and refreshed with your kind greeting, as bright and more 
happy than when we left the national capital. 

I am glad to feel that here, on the western edge of the continent, 
in this Pacific State, there is that same enthusiastic love for the flag, 
that same veneration and respect for American institutions, for the one 
Union and the one Constitution, that is found in the heart of the 
country. We are one people absolutely. We follow not men, but 
institutions. We are happy in the fact that though men may live or 
die, come or go, we still have that toward which the American citizen 
turns with confidence and veneration — this great union of the States 
devised so happily by our fathers. General Garfield, when Mr. Lincoln 
was stricken down by the foul hand of an assassin, and when that 
great wave of dismay and grief swept over the land, standing in a busy 
thoroughfare of New York, could say: "The Government at Wash- 
ington still lives." It is dependent upon no man. It is lodged safely 
in the affections of the people, and having its impregnable defense and 
its assured perpetuity in their love and veneration for law. [Cheers.] 



TULARE, CAL. 

At lo o'clock on Saturday morning, April 25, the President 
made his first actual stump speech. It was at Tulare, Cal. On 
the arrival of the train at .that place the committee escorted the 
President to a gaily decorated stand at the base of which was a 
stump of a mammoth redwood tree. He mounted this and sur- 
rounded by a guard of honor composed of G. A. R. and local 
militia and amid great cheering the President spoke as follows : 

AMERICAN BIRTHRIGHT THE BEST HERITAGE. 

My Friends : This seems to be a very happy and smiling audience, 
and I am sure that the gladness which is in your hearts and in your faces 
does not depend at all upon the presence of this little company of 
strangers who tarry with you for a moment. It is born of influence and 
conditions that are permanent. It comes of the happy sunshine and 
sweet air that is over your fields, and still more from the contentment, 
prosperity and love and peace that are in your households. California 



6o 

has been spoken of as a wonderland, and everywhere we have gone 
something new, interesting and surprising has been presented to our 
observation. There has been but one monotone in our journey and 
that is the monotone of universal welcome from all your people. 
[Cheers.] Everything else has been new and exceptional at every 
stop. 

My own heart kindles with gladness, my own confidence in 
American interests is. firmer and more settled as I mingle with the 
great masses of our people. You are here in a great agricultural region, 
reclaimed from desert waste by the skill and energy of man, a region 
populated by a substantial, industrious, thrifty. God-fearing people, a 
people devoted to the institutions under which they live, proud to be 
Americans, feeling that the American birthright is the best heritage 
they can hand down to their children ; proud of the great story of our 
country from the time of independence to this day ; devoted to 
institutions that give the largest liberty to the individual and at the 
same time secure social order. Here is the firm foundation upon 
which our hopes for future security rests. What but our own neglect, 
what but our own unfaithfulness, can put in peril either our national 
institutions or our local organizations of government ? True to our- 
selves, true to those principles which we have embodied in our Gov- 
ernment, there is to the human eye no danger that can threaten the 
firm base of our institutions. 

I am glad to see and meet these happy children. I feel like 
kneeling to them as the future sovereigns of this country, and feel as if 
it were a profanation to tread upon these sweet flowers that they have 
spread in my pathway. God bless them, every one; keep them in 
the lives they are to live from all that is evil, fill their little hearts with 
sunshine and their mature lives with grace and usefulness. [Cheers.] 

FRESNO, CAL. 

An immense crowd, including many school children, greeted 
the President at Fresno. The train was twenty minutes ahead 
of time, and during the stop the President made the following 
speech, in reply to a presentation of fruits and flowers by the 
local committee : 

OUR HOMES ARE SAFE. 

It is altogether impossible for me to reach with my voice this vast 
concourse of friends. I can only say I am profoundly grateful for 
this enthusiastic greeting. I receive with great satisfaction the 



6i 

memento you have given me of the varied products of this most fertile 
and happy valley. I shall carry it with me to Washington as a 
reminder of a scene that will never fade from my memory. It is very 
pleasant to know that all these pursuits that so much engage your 
thoughts and so industriously employ your time, have not turned your 
minds away from the love of the flag and of those institutions which spread 
their secure power over all your homes. What is it that makes the 
scattered homes of our people secure ? There is no policeman at the 
door ; there is no guard to accompany us as we move across this great 
continent. You and I are in the safe keeping of the law and of the 
aifection and regard of all our people. Each respects the rights of the 
other. I am glad to receive this manifestation of your respect. I am 
glad to drink in this morning with this sunshine, this sweet balmy air. 
It is a new impulse to public duty, a new love for the Union and flag. 
It is a matter of great regret that I can return in such a small 
measure your affectionate greeting. I wish it were possible I could 
greet each one of you personally, that it were possible in some way, 
other than in words, to testify to you my grateful sense of your good 
will. 

MERCED, CAL. 

Over 20,000 people greeted the President at Merced at 1. 18 
o'clock in the afternoon. He had to submit to hand-shaking by 
the crowd, and when he had grasped the hand of almost every 
one, they called upon him to make a speech and he responded as 
follows : 

PLENTY AND PROSPERITY. 

My Fellow Citize.vs : I have scarcely been able to finish a meal 
since I have been in California. [Laughter.] I find myself hardly 
seated at the table till some one reminds me that in about five minutes 
I am to meet another throng of cordial and friendly people, but I think 
I would have subsisted on this trip through California without anything 
to eat, and have dined wholly upon the stimulus and inspiration which 
your good will and kindly greetings have given to me. I do not think, 
however, from what I have seen of these valleys, that it will be neces- 
sary for any one but the President to live without eating. [Laughter ] 

I have been greatly delighted with the agricultural richness, with 
the surprises in natural scenery and in production, which have met us 
on this journey. Everywhere something has been lying in ambush for 
us, and when I was thinking of prunes and English walnuts and oranges, 



62 

we suddenly pulled up to a station where they had a pyramid of pig 
tin to excite our wonder and interest at the variety of production in this 
marvelous State, 

But let me say above all, above all these fruits and flowers, above 
all these productions of mine and field, I have been most pleased with 
the men and women of California. [Applause.] 

It gives me great pleasure to meet everywhere these little ones. 
I am fond of children, they attract my interest always, and the little 
ones of my own household furnish about the only relaxation and 
pleasure I have at Washington. [Applause.] I wish for your chil- 
dren and for you, out of whose homes they come and where they are 
treasured with priceless affection and tender supervision, all the bless- 
ings that a benign Providence and a good government can bestow. I 
shall be glad if in any way I have opportunity to conserve and promote 
your interests. [Cheers. ] 



MODESTO, CAL. 

Only a few minutes' stop was made at Modesto, but the 
greeting was heart}^, and added to the shouts of the people 
were the noises of a brass band and the firing of cannon. The 
President's speech was as follows: 

NO OTHER LAND LIKE OURS. 

Fellow Citizens : It is very pleasant for me to meet here, as 
at all the stations I have passed, a kindly assembly of my fellow 
countrymen. We do not need any one to watch us, nor do we need to 
keep watch against anybody else. Peace and good will characterize 
our communities. I was quite amused at a station not far from here to 
hear a wondering Chinaman remark as he came up to the train, 
"Why, they have no guns on board!" [Laughter.] How different 
it is with us— no retinue, no guards. We travel across this broad 
country safe in the confidence and fellowship and kindness of its citizen- 
ship. What other land is there like it ? Where else are there homes 
like ours ? Where else institutions so free and yet so adequate to all 
the needs of governments, to make the home and community safe, to 
restrain the ill-disposed, and everywhere to promote peace and indi- 
vidual happiness ? 

We congratulate each other that we are American citizens. With- 
out distinction of party, without taking note of the many existing dif- 
ferences of opinion, we are all glad to do all in our power to promote 



63 

the dignity and prosperity of the country we love. We cannot love it 
too much ; we cannot be too careful that all our influence is on the 
side of good government and of American interests. We do not wish 
ill to any other nation or people in the world, but they must excuse us 
if we regard our own fellow citizens as having the highest claim on our 
regard. We will promote such measures as look to our own interests. 
[Cheers. ] 



LATHROP, CAL. 

It was late in the afternoon when the train reached Lath- 
rop, Cal., the place where Judge Terry was shot by U. S. 
Deputy Marshal Nagle, in defending Justice Field. The Presi- 
dent was greeted by a great crowd. This place has the dis- 
tinction of being the only one on the tour where the President 
kissed a baby. After his speech several children were pressed 
forward and held up to the President and he smilingly kissed 
quite a number. He then turned over the rest to Postmaster- 
General Wanamaker and Secretary Rusk, who had their share 
of kisses from the Lathrop infants. In answer to repeated calls 
for a speech the President said : 

WE HAVE NO OTHER KING THAN LAW. 

My Fellow Citizens : I should be less than human if I were not 
touched by the rapid succession of hearty greetings received by us in 
our journey through California. 1 should be more than human if I 
were able to say something new or interesting at each of these assem- 
blies. 

My heart has but one language : it is, "I thank you.'" 

Most tenderly do I feel as an individual so much of this kindness 
as is personal to me, and as a public official I am most profoundly 
grateful that the American people so unitedly show their love and 
devotion to the Constitution and the flag. 

We have a government of the majority; it is the original compact 
that when the majority has been fairly counted at the polls, the 
expressed will of that majority, taking the form of public law enacted 
by State Legislatures or the National Congress, shall be the sole rule of 
conduct of every loyal man. [Cheers.] 



64 

We have no other king than law, and he is entitled to the alle- 
giance of every heart and bowed knee of every citizen. [Cries of 
' ' Good, " ' ' good, " and'cheers. ] 

I cannot look forward with any human apprehension to any 
danger to our country, unless it approaches us through a corrupt ballot 
box. [Applause.] Let us keep that spring pure, and these happy 
valleys shall teem with an increasing population of happy citizens, and 
our country shall find in an increasing population only increased unity 
and strength. [Cheers.] 



SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 

Although San Francisco's welcome was a tremendous one of 
blazing lights, firing of cannon, tooting of whistles and pyrotech- 
nics galore, still the President managed to escape on his first 
night wHth a very short speech. After crossing the Bay and 
lauding in San Francisco, at the foot of Market Street, Mayor 
Sanderson ofiicialh" welcomed the President to San Francisco, 
presenting him with the freedom of the city. In reply the Presi- 
dent said : 

THE GREATNESS AND GLORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

Mr. Mayor : I have received with great gratification these words 
of welcome which you have extended to me on behalf of the city of 
San Francisco. They are but new expressions of the welcome which 
has been extended to me since I entered the State of California. Its 
greatness and glory I knew something of by story and tradition, but 
what I have seen of its resources has quite surpassed my imagination. 
But what I have been impressed by is the loyal and intelligent and 
warm-hearted people I have everywhere met. I thank you for this 
reception. 



SUNDAY, APRIL 26th. 

REST. 

NO SPEECHES. 



66 

APRIL 27 and 28— SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 

The President made no formal speeches on either of these 
days. On Monday, the 27th, he reviewed the school children, 
lunched with Mr. Adolph Sutro at his residence overlooking the 
Cliff House and visited the Presidio. At night he held a formal 
reception at Palace Hotel, San Francisco. Tuesday, the 28th, 
was devoted to an excursion down the Bay and through the Golden 
Gate. In the afternoon he witnessed the launching of the coast 
defence steamer "Monterey," and at night attended a reception 
at Senator Stanford's. 

APRIL 29— REDWOOD, CAL. 

The President left San Francisco on Wednesday, the 29th, at 

10 o'clock. After spending the morning at Senator Stanford's 

ranch at Palo Alto, the train went on to Monterey. The first 

stop w^as made at Redwood, where the crowd called for a speech, 

and the President's address was as follows : 

My Friends : I am sorry that I can say nothing more to you 
in the Hmited time we have than that I am sincerely thankful for your 
friendly demonstration. 

SAN JOSE, CAL. 

A stop of an hour was made at San Jose, and after a 
parade to the Court House the President, in response to an 
address of welcome by the MaA^or, said : 

WORTHY SONS OF WORTHY SIRES. 

Mr. Mayor and Fellow Citizens : I am again surprised by 
this large outpouring of my friends, and by the respectful interest which 
they evince. I cannot find words to express the delight which I have 
felt, and which those who journey with me have felt, as we have 
observed the beauty, and, more than all, the comfort and prosperity 
which characterize the great State of California. I am glad to observe 
here, as I have elsewhere, that my old comrades of the great war for 



67 

the Union have turned out to witness afresh by this demonstration their 
love for the flag and their veneration for American institutions. 

My comrades, I greet you, every one, affectionately. I doubt 
not that every loyal State has representatives here of that great army 
that subdued the rebellion and brought home the flag in triumph, I 
hope that you have found in this flowery and prosperous land, in the 
happy homes which you have builded up here, in the wives and chil- 
dren that grace your firesides, a sweet contrast to those times of peril 
and hardship which you experienced in the army, and I trust above all 
that under these genial and kindly influences you still maintain your 
devotion to our institutions and are teaching it to the children that 
shall take your places. 

We often speak of the children following in the footsteps of 
their fathers. A year ago nearly, in Boston, at the great review of the 
Grand Army of the Republic, after those thousands of veterans, 
stricken with years and labor, had passed along, a great army nearly 
as large came on with the swinging step that characterized you when 
you carried the flag from your home to the field. They were the sons 
of veterans, literally marching in their fathers' steps ; and so I love to 
think that in the hands of this generation that is coming on to take our 
places our institutions are safe and the honor and glory of the flag will 
be maintained. We may quietly go to our rest when God shall call us 
in the full assurance that his favoring providence will follow us, and 
that in your children valor and sacrifice for the flag will always mani- 
fest themselves on every occasion. 

Again thanking you for your presence and friendly interest, I 
must beg you to excuse further speech, as we must journey on to other 
scenes like this. Good-bye and God bless you, comrades. 



GILROY, CAL. 

A three minutes' stop was made at Gilroy, where the Ma3^or 
presented an address and the crowd cheered heartily, but the 
President had only time to speak the following words : 

My Friends : It gives me great pleasure to see you for a moment, 
and thank you for your kindness in coming out on this occasion. 



68 

PAJARO, CAL. 

At 7 o'clock Pajaro was reached and a great crowd greeted 
the President. He appeared on the rear platform of his car 
and addressed them, saying : 

LIKE THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 

My Friends : I am very glad to see you this evening. I am sorry 
that the fatigues of the past few days have left us all in a state not quite 
so fresh and blooming as your fields and gardens. We are a little 
dusty and a little worn, but you quite rekindle our spirits by this 
demonstration. We have ridden with great delight through this 
beautiful valley to-day. It seems to me, as we pass each ridge or 
backbone and come into a new valley, that we see something that still 
more resembles the Garden of Eden. It is a constant succession of 
surprises, but most of all I delight to see such convincing evidence of 
the contentment and happiness of your people. I am sure that those 
I see here to-day must come from happy anci prosperous homes. I 
wish you all good-bye. 



DEL MONTE, CAL. 

The night of the 29th was spent quieth' at the Hotel del 
Monte. 



APRIL 30— MONTEREY, CAL, 

Earl3^ in the morning the entire Presidential part}^ left the 
Hotel del Monte in six-horse wagons and drove to the ancient 
city of Monterey. Here an immense crowd from neighboring 
towns and country had gathered at the old Custom House to 
welcome the President. He left his carriage and mounted the 
porch of the historic building. 

Mayor Hill of Salinas delivered the address of welcome, and 
on behalf of the three cities, Monterey, Salinas and Pacific 
Grove, presented the President with a solid silver card containing 
an engraving of the old Custom House, inscribed as follows : 



69 

' ' Old Custom House, where the first American flag was raised in 
1846. Greeting to our President, April 30, 1891." 
In reply the President said : 

DEVOTION TO THE GOVERNMENT. 

Mr. Mayor and Fellow Citizens : Our whole pathway 
through the State of California has been paved with good will. We 
have been made to walk upon flowers. Our hearts have been 
touched and refreshed at every point by the voluntary offerings of 
your hospitable people. Our trip has been one continued ovation of 
friendliness. I have had occasion to say before that no man is 
entitled to appropriate to himself these tributes. They witness a 
peculiar characteristic of the American people. Unlike many other 
people less happy, we give our devotion to a Government, to its Con- 
stitution, to its flag, and not to men. We reverence and obey those 
who have been placed by our own suffrages and choice in public sta- 
tions, but our allegiance, our affection, is given to our beneficent 
institutions, and upon this rock our security is based. We are not 
subject to those turbulent uprisings that prevail where the people 
follow leaders rather than institutions ; where they are caught by the 
glamour and dash of brilliant men rather than by the steady law of 
free institutions. 

looking FORU'ARD. 

I rejoice to be for a moment among you this morning. The 
history of this city starts a train of reflections in my mind that I 
cannot follow out in speech, but the impression of them will remain 
with me as long as I live. [Applause.] California and its coast 
were essential to the integrity and completeness of the American 
Union. But who can tell what may be the result of the establish- 
ment here of free institutions, the setting up by the wisdom and 
foresight and courage of the early pioneers in California of a com- 
monwealth that was very early received into the American Union. 
We see to-day what has been wrought. But who can tell what 
another century will disclose, when these valleys have become thick 
with a prosperous and thriving and happy people ? I thank you 
again for your cordial greeting and bid you good morning. [Cheers.] 

After the speech the President and party started on an 
eighteen mile drive through Pacific Park and Cypress Grove 
along the Pacific Ocean. A picnic luncheon was served al fresco, 



70 

at Camp George W. Boyd, and the party returned to the Hotel 
del Monte in the afternoon. The party spent the night on the 
train and left early in the morning for Santa Cruz. 

MAY I— SANTA CRUZ, CAL. 

The President arrived in Santa Cruz early in the morning of 
Friday, May i. He was welcomed by booming of cannon and 
screeching of whistles. The beach along the bay was black with 
people, and although the stop was short the ovation was a 
tremendous one. During the forty-five minutes of the time 
allotted to Santa Cruz, Mayor Bowman escorted the President to 
the carriage and the procession moved up the hill from the sea 
through a double column of school children, who cast flowers in 
his pathway, at the same time singing "America." In response 
to the address of welcome by the Mayor, the President said : 

PRIDE IN THE GOLDEN STATE. 

Mr. Mayor and Fellow Citizens : It seems to me like 
improvidence that all this tasteful and magnificent display should be 
but for a moment. In all my journeying in California, where every 
city has presented some surprise and where each has been character- 
ized by lavish and generous display, I have not seen anything so 
suddenly created and yet so beautiful. I am sure we have not ridden 
through any street more attractive than this. I thank you most 
sincerely for this cordial welcome. I am sure you are a loyal, and I 
know you are a loving and kindly people. [Cheers.] We have 
been received, strangers as we were, with affection, and everywhere, 
as I look into the faces of this people, I feel my heart swell with pride 
that I am an American and that California is one of the American 
States. [Cheers.] 

LOS GATOS, CAL. 

After leaving Santa Cruz, Los Gatos was the first stop, and 
here the President was greeted by the local militia, the Grand 
Army, Knights of Pythias, and nearly all the inhabitants of the 



71 

surrounding country. When the train stopped he was escorted to 
a decorated stand near the railroad depot, and in response to 
vociferous demands for a speech, addressed the crowd as follows : 

FERTILE HILL-TOPS. 

My Fellow Citizens : If California had lodged a complaint 
against the last census I should have been inclined to entertain it and 
to order your people to be counted again. [Laughter.] From what 
I have seen in these days of pleasant travel through your State I am 
sure the census enumerators have not taken you all. We have had 
another surprise in coming over these mountains to find that not the 
valleys alone of California, but its hill-tops are capable of productive 
cultivation. We have been greatly surprised to see vineyards and 
orchards at these altitudes, and to know that your fields rival in pro- 
ductiveness the famous valleys of your State. 

I thank you for your cordial greeting. It overpowers me. I 
feel that these brief stops are but poor recompense for the trouble 
and care you have taken. I wish we could tarry longer with you. 
I wish I could know more of you individually, but I can only thank 
you and say that we will carry away most happy impressions of Cali- 
fornia, and that in public and in private life it will give me pleasure 
always to show my appreciation of your great State. [Cheers.] 



SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. (Chamber of Commerce.) 

The run back to San Francisco was made without any 
further stops. The city was reached shortly before noon, and 
the President went at once to the Chamber of Commerce where 
he met a large number of delegates from various local societies. 
He shook hands with a number of gentlemen present, and being 
escorted to the magnificently decorated stand at the end of 
the room, he listened to an address by Col. Ta3dor. When 
that gentleman finished the President arose and w^as greeted 
by a storm of applause. The merchants and staid business 
men seemed to have forgotten their conservative manner and 
vied with each other in shouting the loudest. The President 
spoke as follows : 



72 

a business administration. 

Mr. President and Gentlemen of these Assembled Soci- 
eties : I have been subjected during my stay in California in some 
respects to the same treatment the policeman accords to the tramp^ 
I have been kept moving on. [Laughter and applause.] You have 
substituted flowers and kindness for the policeman's baton. And yet, 
notwithstanding all this, we come to you this morning not exhausted 
or used up, but a little fatigued. Your cordial greetings are more 
exhilarating than your wane [applause], and perhaps safer for the con- 
stitution. [Laughter and applause.] 

I am glad to stand in the presence of this assemblage of business 
men. I have tried to make this a business Administration. [Applause.] 
Of course we cannot wholly separate politics from a national Admin- 
istration, but I have felt that every public officer owed his best service 
to the people without distinction of party [Cries of ''Good," " good," 
and applause]; that in administering official trusts we were in a very 
strict sense, not merely in a figurative sense, your servants. It has 
been my desire that in every branch of the public service there should 
be improvement. I have stimulated all the Secretaries and have 
received stimulus from them in the endeavor, in all the departments 
of the Government that touch your business life, to give you as perfect 
a service as possible. [Cries of "Good," "good," and applause.] 
This we owe to you ; but if I were pursuing party ends I should feel 
that I was by such methods establishing my party in the confidence 
of the people. [Applause.] 

AMERICANISM EXTOLLED. 

I feel that we have come to a point where American indus- 
tries, American commerce and American influence are to be re- 
vived and extended. [Applause.] The American sentiment and 
feeling was never more controlling than now ; and I do not use 
that term in the narrow sense of native American, but to embrace 
all loyal citizens, whether native born or adopted, who have 
the love of our flag in their hearts. [Great cheering.] I shall 
speak to-night, probably, at the banquet of business men, and will not 
enter into any lengthy discussion here. Indeed, I am so careful not to 
trespass upon any forbidden topic, that 1 may not in the smallest 
degree offend those who have forgotten party politics in extending 
this greeting to us, that I do not know how far I should talk 
upon these public questions. But, since your chairman has alluded 
to them, I can say I am in hearty sympathy with the suggestions he 
has made. [Applause.] I believe there are methods by which we 



73 

shall put the American flag upon the sea again. [Applause.] In 
speaking the other day I used an illustration which will perhaijs be 
apt in this company of merchants. You recall, all of you, certainlv 
those of my age, the time when no merchant sent out traveling men. 
He expected the buyer to come to his store. Perhaps that was well 
enough ; but certain enterprising men sought custom by putting travel- 
ing men with samples on the road. However the conservative mer- 
chant regarded that innovation, he had but one choice — to put travel- 
ing men on the road or go out of business. In this question of ship- 
ping we are in a similar condition. The great commercial govern- 
ments of the world have stimulated their shipping interests by direct 
or indirect subsidies, while w^e have been saying, " No, we prefer the 
old way." We must advance or — I will not say go out of business, 
for we have already gone out. [Applause.] I thank you most cor- 
dially for your greeting, and bid you good-bye. [Applause.] 



SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. (G. A. R. May Day Festivities ) 

After leaving the Chamber of Commerce the President was 
escorted by numerous posts of G. A. R. to the Mechanics' Pa- 
vilion, where no less than 10,000 people were assembled to 
witness the May Day festivities. The festival was under the 
auspices of the various posts of the Grand Army of the Republic, 
and the large pavilion was magnificently decorated. The Presi- 
dent was received by Mr. Henry C. Dibble and escorted to the 
raised platform at one end of the pavilion. He was introduced 
to the multitude, and after his address sat in a floral- trimmed 
chair and watched the May Day festivities. His speech at the 
festival was as follows : 

GOOD WORDS FOR THE G. A. R. 

Comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic : It will not 
be possible in so large a hall for me to make myself heard, and yet I 
cannot refuse when appealed to to say a word of kindly greeting to 
those comrades who have found their homes on the Pacific coast. 
I have no doubt that all the loyal States of the Union are repre- 
sented in this assembly, and it is pleasant to know that, after the 
strife and hardships of those years of battle, you have found among 



74 

the flowers and fruits of the earth homes that are full of pleasantness 
and peace. 

It was that these things might continue to be that you went to 
battle ; it was that these homes might be preserved ; it was that the 
flag and all that it symbolizes might be perpetuated, that you fought 
and many of our comrades died. All this land calls you blessed. 
The fruits of division and strife that would have been ours if seces- 
sion had succeeded would have been full of bitterness. The end 
that was attained by your valor under the providence of God has 
brought peace and prosperity to all the States. [Applause.] 

It gave me great pleasure in passing through the Southern States 
to see how your work had contributed to their prosperity. No man 
can look upon any of these States through which we campaigned and 
fought without realizing that what seemed to their people a disaster 
was, under God, the opening of a great gate of prosperity and happi- 
ness. [Applause.] 

A HOMOGENEOUS PEOPLE. 

All those fires of industry which I saw through the South were 
lighted at the funeral pyre of slaver>'. [Cries of "Good," "good," 
and applause.] They were impossible under the conditions that ex- 
isted previously in those States. We are now a homogeneous people. 
You, in California, full of pride and satisfaction with the greatness 
of your State, will always set above it the greater glory and the 
greater citizenship which our flag symbolizes. [Cheers.] You went 
into the war for the defense of the Union ; you have come out to 
make your contribution to the industries and progress of this age of 
peace. As, in our States of the Northwest, the winter covering of 
snow hides and warms the vegetation, and, with the coming of the 
spring sun melts and sinks into the earth to refresh the root, so this 
great army was a covering and defense, and, when the war was 
ended, turned into rivulets of refreshment to all the pursuits of 
peace. [Applause.] There was nothing greater in all the world's 
story than the assembling of this army except its disbandment. 
[Applause.] It was an army of citizens ; and, when the war was 
over, the soldier was not left at the tavern — he had a fireside towards 
which his steps hastened. He ceased to be a soldier and became a 
citizen. [Cheers.] 

I observe, as I look into your faces, that the youth of the army 
must have settled on the Pacific coast. [Laughter and applause.] 
You are younger men here than we are in the habit of meeting at 
our Grand Army posts in the East. May all prosperity attend you ; 
may you be able to show yourselves in civil life, as in the war, the 



75 

steadfast, unfaltering, devoted friends of this flag you are willing to 
die for. [Great cheering.] 



SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. (Banquet.) 

The largest banquet of the tour took place on Friday night, 
May I, at the Palace Hotel. The enormous tables were magnifi- 
cently decorated with flowers, and the great hall was filled with 
San Francisco's most prominent citizens. After the banquet 
General Barnes delivered a clever speech of welcome. When he 
finished he introduced the President. Mr. Harrison could not 
speak for some minutes on account of the cheers that greeted 
him. Finally he was allowed to make his address. This was 
the second longest speech of the tour, the Galveston one exceed- 
ing it by a few hundred words. He spoke as follows : 

THE HALF HAD NOT BEEN TOLD. 

Mr. President and Gentlemen : When the Queen of Sheba 
visited the court of Solomon and saw its splendors, she was com- 
pelled to testify that the half had not been told her. Undoubtedly 
the emissaries of Solomon's court, who had penetrated to her distant 
territory, found themselves in a like situation to that which attends 
Californians when they travel East — they are afraid to put too much 
to test the credulity of their hearers [laughter and applause], and, as 
a gentleman of your State said to me : It has resulted in a prevailing 
indisposition among Californians to tell the truth out of California. 
[Laughter and applause.] Not at all because Californians are un- 
friendly to the truth [laughter], but solely out of compassion for 
their hearers [laughter] they address themselves to the capacity of 
those who hear them. [Laughter.] And, taking warning by the 
fate of the man who told a sovereign of the Indies that he had seen 
water so solid that it could be walked upon, they do not carry their 
best stories away from home. [Laughter.] 

It has been, much as I have heard of California, a brilliant dis- 
illusion to me and to those who have journeyed with me. The half 
had not been told of the productiveness of your valleys, of the blos- 
soming orchards, of the gardens laden with flowers. We have seen 
and been entranced. Our pathway has been strewn with flowers. 
We have been surprised, when we were in a region of orchards and 



76 

roses, to be suddenly pulled up at a station and asked to address 
some remarks to a pyramid of pig tin. [Laughter and applause.] 

A RESERVOIR OF STATESMANSHIP. 

Products of the mine, rare and exceptional, have been added to 
the products of the field, until now the impression has been made upon 
my mind that if any want should be developed in the arts, possibly if 
any wants should be developed in statesmanship, or any vacancies in 
office [great laughter], we have here a safe reservoir [laughter] that 
can be drawn upon ad libitum. [Laughter and applause.] But, my 
friends, sweeter than all the incense of flowers, richer than all the 
products of mines, has been the gracious, unaffected, hearty kindness 
with which the people of California have everywhere received us. 
[Great applause.] Without division, without dissent, a simple yet 
magnificent and enthusiastic American welcome. [Great applause.] 

It is gratifying that it should be so. We may carry into our 
campaigns, to our conventions and congresses, discussions and divis- 
ions, but how grand it is that we are a people who bow reverently 
to the decision when it is rendered, and who will follow the flag 
always, everywhere, with absolute devotion of heart without asking 
what party may have given the leader in whose hands it is placed. 
[Enthusiastic cheering]. 

A NEW EPOCH COMING. 

I believe that we have come to a new epoch as a nation. There 
are opening portals before us, inviting us to enter — opening portals to 
trade and influence and prestige such as we have never seen before. 
[Great applause.] We will pursue the paths of peace; we are not a 
warlike nation; all our instincts, all our history is in the lines of 
peace. [Applause.] Only intolerable aggression, only the peril of 
our institutions — of the flag — can thoroughly arouse us. [Great ap- 
plause.] With capability for war on land and on sea unexcelled by 
any nation in the world [cheers], we are smitten with the love of 
peace. [Applause]. We would promote the peace of this hemi- 
sphere by placing judiciously some large guns about the Golden Gate 
[great and enthusiastic cheering] — simply for saluting purposes 
[laughter and cheers], and yet they should be of the best modern 
type. [Cheers.] 

We should have on the sea some good vessels. We don't need 
as great a navy as some other people, but we do need a sufficient 
navy of first-class ships, simply to make sure that the peace of the 
hemisphere is preserved [cheers]; simply that we may not leave the 



77 

great distant marts and harbors of commerce and our few citizens 
who may be domiciled there to feel lonesome for the sight of the 
American flag. [Cheers.] 

PROGRESS OF THE NAVY. 

We are making fine progress in the construction of the navy. 
The best English constructors have testified to the completeness and 
perfection of some of our latest ships. It is a source of great 
gratification to me that here in San Francisco the Qnergy, enterprise 
and courage of some of your citizens have constructed a plant 
capable of building the best modern ships. [Cries of " Good," 
*' good," and cheers.] 

I saw with great delight the magnificent launch of one of these 
new vessels. I hope that you may so enlarge your capacities for 
construction that it will not be necessary to send any naval vessel 
around the Horn. [Cheers.] We want merchant -ships. [Cheers.] 
I believe we have come to a time when w^e should choose whether we 
will continue to be non-participants in the commerce of the world or 
will now vigorously, with the push and energy which our people 
have shown in other lines of enterprise, claim our share of the 
world's commerce. [Cheers.] 

I will not enter into the discussion of methods of the Postal bill 
of the last session of Congress, which marks the beginning. Here in 
California, where for so long a time a postal service that did not pav 
its own way was maintained by the government, where for other 
years the government has maintained mail lines into your valleys, 
reaching out to every remote community, and paying out yearly 
a hundred times the revenue that was derived, it ought not to be 
difficult to persuade you that our ocean mail should not longer be 
the only service for which we refuse to expend even the revenues 
derived from it. [Cheers.] 

INCREASINC; TRADE WITH OTHER AMERICAN REPUBLICS. 

It is my belief that, under the operation of the law to which I 
have referred, we shall be able to stimulate ship building, to secure 
some new lines of American steamships, and to increase the ports of 
call of all those now established. [Enthusiastic cheering.] 

It will be my effort to do what may be done under the powers 
lodged in me by the law to open and increase trade with the countries 
of Central and South America. [Cheers.] I hope it may not be long. 
I know it will not be long, if we but unitedly pursue this great 
scheme — until one can take a sail in the bav of San Francisco and 



78 

see some deep-water ships come in bearing our own flag, [Enthusi- 
astic and continued cheering.] 

During our excursion the other day I saw three great vessels 
come in; one carried the Hawaiian and two the English flag. I am 
a thorough believer in the construction of the Nicaragua Canal. 
[Cheers.] You have pleased me so much that I would like a shorter 
water communication between my State and yours. [Cheers.] In- 
fluences and operations are now started that will complete, 1 am sure, 
this stately enterprise; but, my fellow citizens and Mr. President, this 
is the fifth time this day that I have talked to gatherings of California 
friends, and we have so much taxed the hospitality of San Francisco 
[''No," "No"] in making our arrangements to make this city the 
centre of a whole week's sightseeing that I do not want to add to 
your other burdens the infliction of longer speech. [Cries of " Go 
on."] Right royally have you welcomed us with all that is rich and 
prodigal in provision and display. With all graciousness and friend- 
liness, I leave my heart with you when I go. [Great and prolonged 
cheering.] 



MAY 2— SACRAMENTO, CAL. 

The President left San Francisco early Saturday morning and 
arrived at Sacramento after a few hours' ride. His reception 
there was tremendous, and after a parade and review of school 
children he was escorted to the State House by Governor 
Markham, and in response to the address of welcome spoke 
as follows : 

Governor Markham and Fellow Citizens : Our eyes have 
rested upon no more beautiful or impressive sight since we entered 
California. This fresh delightful morning, this vast assemblage of 
contented and happy people, this building, dedicated to the uses of 
civil government — all things about us tend to inspire our hearts with 
pride and w^ith gratitude. 

Gratitude to that overruling Providence that turned hither after 
the discovery of this continent the steps of those who had the capac- 
ity to organize a free representative government. 

Gratitude to that Providence that has increased the feeble colo- 
nies on an inhospitable coast to these millions of prosperous people 
who have found another sea and populated its sunny shores with a 
happy and growing people. [Applause.] 



79 

Gratitude to that Providence that led us through civil strife to a 
glory and a perfection of unity as a people that was otherwise im- 
possible. 

Gratitude that we have to-day a Union of free States without a 
slave to stand as a reproach to that immortal declaration upon which 
our government rests. [Cheers.] 

Pride that our people have achieved so much ; that, triumphing 
over all the hardships of those early pioneers, who struggled in the 
face of discouragement and difficulties more appalling than those that 
met Columbus when he turned the prows of his little vessels toward 
an unknown shore ; that, triumphing over perils of starvation, perils 
of savages, perils of sickness, here on the sunny slope of the Pacific 
they have established civil institutions and set up the banner of the 
imperishable Union. [Cheers.] 

Every Californian who has followed in their footsteps, every 
man and woman who is to-day enjoying the harvest of their endeavors 
should always lift his hat to the pioneer of '49. [Cheers. ] 

We stand here at the political centre of a great State, this build- 
ing where your lawmakers assemble, chosen by your suffrages to 
execute your will in framing those rules of conduct which shall con- 
trol the life of the citizen. May you always find here patriotic, 
consecrated men to do your work. May they always assemble here 
with a high sense of duty to those brave, intelligent and honorable 
people. May they catch the great lesson of our Government, tliat 
our people need only such regulation as shall restrain the ill-disposed 
and shall give the largest liberty to individual enterprise and effort. 
[Cheers.] 

No man is gifted with speech to describe the beauty and the 
impressivenes of this great occasion. I am awed in this presence. 
I bow reverently to this great assembly of free, intelligent, enter- 
prising, American sovereigns. [Cheers.] 

SOIL BETTER THAN GOLD 

I am glad to have this hasty glimpse of this early centre of im- 
migration. I am glad to stand at the place where that momentous 
event, the discovery of gold, transpired, and yet, after you have washed 
your sand of gold, after the eager rush for sudden wealth, after all this 
you have come into a heritage in the possession of these fields, 
in those enduring and inexhaustible treasures of your soil, which will 
perpetually sustain a great population. 

In parting, Sir (to the Governor), to you as the representative of 
this people, I give the most hearty thanks of all who journey with me 



8o 

and my own for the early, continuous, kindly, yea, even affectionate, 
attention, which has followed us in all our footsteps through California. 

BENICIA, CAL. 

The President's first speech after leaving Sacramento was at 
Benicia. When the train stopped three cheers were given him, 
and after repeated requests for a speech he appeared on the rear 
platform of his car and thanked the people. He said that he had 
a remembrance of Benicia from very early days. His elder brother 
was sent across the plains in 1857 with the Utah expedition, and 
was afterwards stationed at Benicia, from whence he had received 
many pleasing and interesting letters from him. He thanked the 
people for their welcome and attendance. 

WEST BERKELEY, CAL. (State University). 

The President arrived at West Berkeley at i o'clock. Here 
he was met by Mayor Chapman and the Oakland reception com- 
mittee, who took carriages and drove to the University, where the 
President spoke as follows : 

EDUCATION. 

It gives me great pleasure even to inspect these grounds and the 
exterior of these buildings devoted to education. Our educational 
institutions, beginning with the primary common schools and culmi- 
nating in the great universities of the land, are the instrumentalities by 
which the future citizens of this country are to be trained in the princi- 
ples of morality and in the intellectual culture which will fit them to 
maintain, develop and perpetuate what their fathers have begun. 

I am glad to receive your welcome, and only regret that it is im- 
possible for me to make a closer observation of your work. I unite 
with you in mourning the loss which has come to you in the death of 
Professor Le Conte. I wish for the institution and for those who are 
called here to train the young the guidance and blessing of God in all 
their endeavors. 

DEAF, DUMB AND BLIND ASYLUM. 

From the University they went to the Deaf, Dumb and Blind 
Asylum, where he spoke as follows : 



8i 



OUR CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION. 



It gives me great pleasure to stop for a moment at one of these 
institutions so characteristic of our Christian civilization. In the 
barbarous ages of the world the afflicted were regarded by supeiistition 
unhelpful, or treated with cruel neglect, but in this better day the States 
are everywhere making magnificent provision for the comfort and 
education of the blind and deaf and dumb. 

Where one avenue to the mind has been closed science is open- 
ing another. The eye does the work of the ear, the finger the work of 
the tongue for the dumb, and touch becomes sight to the blind. I am 
sure that gladness has come to all these young hearts through the 
benevolent, careful and affectionate instruction they are receiving here. 
I thank you, and wish all of you the utmost happiness through life. 

OAKLAND, CAL. 

It was a long drive from the time the President left the train 

until he reached Oakland. Great preparations were made at this 

place for the President, but owing to the neglect or oversight of 

the chief of police and his corps the crowd became unmanageable, 

and the President's carriage was stopped four blocks from the 

stand erected for him to speak from. He waited over a quarter 

of an hour for a way to be made for him to reach the stand, but 

it was impossible. He then arose in his carriage and addressed 

the crowd as follows : 

Mr. Mayor and Fellow Citizens : I regret that your enthusiasm 
and the vast size of this assembly have somewhat disconcerted the pro- 
gramme marked out, but I can speak as well from here as from the 
stand, which seems to be inaccessible. 1 return my sincere thanks for 
your welcome, and express the interest and gratification I have felt this 
morning in riding through some of the streets of your beautiful city. I 
thank you most sincerely for your friendliness and bid you good-bye. 

It was impossible for the President to wait any longer, as he 
had to meet engagements in San Francisco, so he was driven at 
once to the ferry. The President expressed great regret at the 
miscarriage of the programme, but it was not his fault that the 
arrangements were not perfect. He did all he could, after a most 



82 

fatiguing day, to carry out the arrangements of the local com- 
mittee, but it was their fault that the programme was interfered 
with by the enthusiasm and size of the crowd. 

SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. (Union League). 

After reaching San Francisco the President had just time 
enough to dress and drive to the Union League Club House, where 
a reception was given to him and his party. When he accepted 
the invitation of the club it was with the understanding that he 
would not make a speech. But at the conclusion of the reception, 
when Mr. Samuel N. Shortridge presented him with a magnificent 
gold card souvenir of the occasion, and made a most graceful 
presentation speech, the President reconsidered his resolution and 
spoke as follows : 

NO SOUVENIRS NEEDED. 

California is full of ambuscades, not of a hostile sort, but with 
all embarrassments that attend surprise. In a hasty drive this after- 
noon, when I thought I was to visit Oakland, I was suddenly drawn 
up in front of a college and asked to make an address, and in a 
moment afterward before an Asylum for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind, 
the character of which I did not know until the carriage stopped in 
front of it. All this taxes the ingenuity as your kindness moves the 
heart of one who is making a hurried journey through California. I 
do not need such souvenirs as this to keep fresh in my heart this visit 
to your State. It will be pleasant, however, to show to others who 
have not participated in this enjoyment, the record of a trip that has 
been very eventful and one of perpetual sunshine and happiness. I do 
not think I could have endured the labor and toil of travel unless I had 
been borne up by the inspiriting and hearty good will of your people. 
I do not know what collapse is in store for me when it is withdrawn. 
I fear I shall need a vigorous tonic to keep up to the high level of 
enjoyment and inspiration which your kind treatment has given me. I 
thank you for this pleasant social enjoyment and this souvenir of it." 



83 

MAY 3— SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. (Farewell.) 

Just before leaving San Francisco at midnight, Sunday, 
May 3, the President gave to the press correspondents the follow- 
ing card of thanks to the citizens of San Francisco and California : 

GOOD WISHES FOR CALIFORNIA. 

''I desire for myself and for the ladies of our party to give an 
expression of our thanks for many individual acts of courtesy which, 
but for the pressure upon our time, would have been specially acknowl- 
edged. Friends who have been so kind will not, I am sure, impute to 
us any lack of appreciation or intended neglect. The very excess of 
their kindness has made any adequate, and much more any particular, 
return impossible. You will all believe that there has been no purposed 
neglect of any locality or individual. We leave you with all good 
wishes for the State of CaHfornia and all her people. 

''Benj. Harrison, 
''May 3, 1891." 

MAY 4— RED BLUFFS, CAL. 

The President was up early Monday morning after leaving 
San Francisco, and although it was raining when the train 
reached Tehama, he appeared on the platform of his car and 
shook hands with a number of the persons gathered to welcome 
him there. It was then 8 o'clock. Half an hour later he reached 
Red Bluffs. Here a large crowd, with a band, were assembled at 
the station. The President was agreeably surprised to find 
among the crowd on the platform an old army friend. Captain 
Matlock. After cordially greeting him, the veteran introduced 
the President to the people, and Mr. Harrison spoke as follows : 

REMINISCENCES. 

My Friends : It is very pleasant to meet here an old comrade 
of the Seventieth Indiana Volunteers. Your fellow citizen, Captain 
Matlock, who has spoken for you, commanded one of the companies 
of my regiment, and is, therefore, a very old and very dear friend. 
Once before in California I had a like surprise. The other day a 
glee club began to sing a song that was famiUar to me, and I said to 



84 

those standing about me : " Why, that song was written by a lieu- 
tenant in my old regiment, and I have not heard it since the war." 
Presently the leader of the glee club turned his face toward me and 
I found he was the identical lieutenant and the composer of the 
song, singing it for my benefit. All along I have met old Indiana 
acquaintances, and I am glad to see them, whether they were of my 
old command or from other regiments of the great war. They all 
seem to be prosperous and happy. Captain Matlock was about the 
same size during the war that he is now. I very well remember, 
according to his own account, that at Resaca he undertook to make 
a breastwork of some "down timber," but he found, after looking 
about, that it was insufficient cover, and took a standing tree. 
[Laughter.] 

AMERICAN SPIRIT. 

Seriously, my friends, you have a most beautiful State, capable 
of promoting the comfort of your citizens in a very high degree, and, 
although already occupying a high place in the galaxy of States, 
it will, I am sure, take a much higher one. It is pleasant to see how 
the American spirit prevails among all your people, the love for the 
flag and the Constitution, those settled and permanent things that 
live whether men go or come. They came to us from our fathers 
and will pass down to our children. You are blessed with a genial 
climate and a most productive soil. I see you have in this northern 
part of California what I have seen elsewhere — a well-ordered com- 
munity, with churches and school houses, which indicates that you 
are not giving all your thoughts to material things, but thinking of 
those things that qualify the soul for the hereafter. We have been 
treated to another surprise this morning in the first shower we have 
seen in California. I congratulate you that it rains here. May all 
blessings fall upon you, like the gentle rain. 



REDDING, CAL. 

Redding, Cal., was the second stop made in Northern Cali- 
fornia. Mayor Briggman and the members of the city council 
gave the President a formal welcome. The school children 
pelted him with fiow^ers and a national salute w^as fired. Judge 
Bush introduced the President to the crowd, and he spoke as 
follows : 



85 

NO EVIDENCES OF WANT. 

My Fellow Citizens : It is very pleasant, as we near the 
northern line of California, after having traversed the valleys of the 
south, and are soon to leave the State in which we have had so much 
pleasurable intercourse with its people, to see here, as I have seen 
elsewhere, multitudes of contented, prosperous and happy people. I 
am assured you are here a homogeneous people, all Americans, all 
by birth or by free choice lovers of one flag and one Constitution. 
It seems to me as I look into the faces of these California audiences 
that life must be easier here than it is in the old States. I see 
absolutely no evidences of want. Everyone seems to be well 
nourished. Your appearance gives evidence that the family board 
is well supplied, and from the gladness on your faces it is evident that 
in your social relations everything is quiet, orderly and hopeful. I 
thank you for your friendly demonstrations. I wish it were possible 
for me to do more in exchange for all your great kindness than 
simply to say thank you; but I do profoundly thank you, and shall 
carry away from your State the very happiest impressions and very 
pleasant memories. 

DINSMUIR, CAL. 

At Dinsmuir the train stopped for two or three minutes, and 
the President shook hands with a number of people who were 
gathered around, and thanked them in a few words for their ver}' 
cordial greeting, remarking that he was glad to find that even 
on the hill-tops of California they found something profitable 
to do. 

SISSON, CAL. 

The President's train arrived at Sisson, at the foot of Mount 
Shasta, at 3 o'clock. A grand demonstration took place, and the 
President made a short speech, thanking the crowd for their 
attendance. 

MOUNT SHASTA. 

My Friends : I have been talking now over a trip of 6000 miles 
and feel pretty well talked out, but I can always say, as I say to you now, 
that it is ever a very great pleasure to me to see these kindly faces 
turned toward me. We have received in South California in their orange 



86 

groves a very hearty welcome, and it is very pleasant to come now to 
this fine scenery among these snow-capped mountains. I have no 
doubt that you find here in this high altitude an inspiration for all 
good things. I thank you again for your cordial greeting 

After the address the President was presented with a steel 
engraving of the mountain and some lava ornaments taken from 
the foot of Mount Shasta, and the party had an excellent view of 
the snow-covered mountain before the train left. 

ASHLAND, ORE. 

It was after 7 o'clock at night when the party crossed the 

Oregon State line and arrived at Ashland at 8 o'clock. A special 

committee of the Oregon State I^egislature boarded the train at this 

point and welcomed the President to Oregon. In response to the 

address of welcome of Mr. Simon, the chairman of the committee, 

the President said : 

Mr. Simon and Gentlemen of the Committee : I esteem it 
an honor that the Legislature of the State of Oregon has taken this 
notice of my visit, and I receive with pleasure this welcome you have 
extended to me. I am very glad to greet you, and it will give me 
pleasure to see you further before leaving the State. 

When he finished his remarks he went out on the back plat- 
form and turning to the crowd, said : 

OREGON. 

My Friends : This cordial welcome, under these infelicitous 
circumstances, is very gratifying to us as we enter the great State of 
Oregon, In the State of California we had sunshine, and it was per- 
haps to be expected that the favorable weather conditions should 
draw about our platform a large concourse of people, but you have 
evidenced your interest in the government and the flag and your 
friendly interest in us by turning out on this inclement night to bid 
us welcome to your State. I thank you most sincerely, and wish for 
you and yours all good, and for your State a continued career of 
development and prosperity. 



87 
MEDFORD (Grant's Pass), ORE. 

The Presidential train reached Medford at lo o'clock at 
night. The town was illuminated, bonfires were burning and 
the local Grand Army men were drawn up in line in front of the 
station and greeted the President with loud cheers. The Mayor 
of Medford introduced the President, who spoke as follows : 

COMRADES. 

Comrades and Fellow Citizens : It gives me great pleasure 
to see you to-night, and to give these old comrades greeting. I would 
have you think of me as a comrade. I recall those army scenes which 
are fresh in your minds as well, the scenes of privation, suffering and 
battle, and I am glad to see that the old flag you took to the field 
and brought home in honor is still held in honor among you. It is 
a beautiful emblem of a great government. We ought to teach our 
children to love it and to regard it as a sacred thing, a thing for 
which men have died and for which men will die. It symbolizes 
the government of the States under one Constitution, for while you 
are all Oregonians as I am an Indianian, and each has his pride in 
State institutions and all that properly pertains to our State govern- 
ment, we have a larger and greater pride in the fact that we are 
citizens of a nation, of a union of States, having a common Constitu- 
tion. 

It is this flag that represents us on the sea and in foreign 
countries, it is under this flag that our navies sail and our armies 
march. I thank you for this cordial greeting. I hope you have 
found in this State comfortable homes, and that in the years that 
remain to you God will follow you with those blessings which your 
courage and patriotism and sacrifices have so well merited. [Cheers.] 

MAY 5— ALBANY, ORE. 

The train stopped at Albany, Oregon, for ten minutes, and 

the Mayor introduced the President to the throng. He spoke 

as follows : 

the union indissoluble. 

My Fellow Citizens : It gives me great pleasure to see you, and 
to have the testimony of your presence here this wet morning to the 
interest you take in this little party of strangers who are pausing only 



88 

for a moment with you. We do not need any assurance, as we look 
over an American audience like this, that upon some things, at least, 
we are of one mind. One of these things is that we have a Union 
indissoluble ; that we have a flag we all honor, and that shall suffer no 
dishonor from any quarter. While I regret the inclemency of the 
morning, I have been thinking that after all there was a sort of instruct- 
ive moral force in the uncertainty of the weather, which our friends in 
Southern California do not enjoy. How can a boy or young woman 
be well trained in self-denial and resignation who does not know what 
it is to have a picnic or picnic dress spoiled by a shower or some fish- 
ing excursion by a storm ? I thank you for this welcome. 

SALEM, ORE. 

Salem, the capital of Oregon, was reached at 9 o'clock in 
the morning. An immense crowd waited at the depot to wel- 
come the President, among them Governor Pennoyer and Mayor 
D'Arcy, the Governor having changed his mind in regard to 
welcoming the President. Criticism of the country had shown 
him that he was wrong in his position that the President should 
call on the Governor first, and he very sensibly bowed to the good 
sense of the people. A procession was formed and moved to the 
State House where, in the Assembly Chamber, Mayor D'Arcy 
delivered an address of welcome to the city. He was followed 
by Governor Pennoyer, who welcomed the President on behalf of 
the State. Then the President arose, and amid tremendous 
applause bowed his acknowledgments. He spoke as follows : 

CO-ORDINATE POWERS. 

Governor Pennoyer, Mr. Mayor and Fellow Citizens : It is 
very pleasant to be assured by these kindly words which have been 
spoken by the Governor of this State and by the chief officer of this 
municipality that we are welcome to the State of Oregon and to the city 
of Salem. I find here as I found elsewhere that these cordial words of 
welcome are repeated with increased emphasis by the kindly faces of 
those who assemble to greet us. I am glad that here as elsewhere we 
look into the faces of happy, prosperous, contented, liberty-loving, 
patriotic American citizens. Oar birthright, the wise anticipation of 



89 

those who framed our government, our national and constitutional 
organization, which has repeated itself in all the States of the Union, 
this wholesome and just division of power between the three great 
independent, co-ordinate branches of the government — the executive, 
the legislative and the judicial — has already demonstrated that what 
seems to the nations of Europe to be a complicated and jangling 
system, produces, is in fact, the most perfect harmony, and the most 
complete and satisfactory organization for social order and for nation- 
al strength. 

CHARACTER. 

We stand here to-day in one of these halls set apart to the law- 
making body of your State. Those who assemble here are chosen by 
your suffrages. They come here as representatives to enact into laws 
those views of public questions which have met the sanction of the 
majority of your people, expressed in an orderly and honest way at 
the ballot-box. I hope it may be always found to be true of Oregon 
that your legislative body is a representative body ; that coming from 
the people, its service is consecrated to the people, and the purpose 
of its consecration is attained by giving to the well-ordered and well- 
disposed the largest liberty, by curbing, by wholesome laws, the ill-dis- 
posed and the lawless, and providing by economical methods for 
the public needs. The judiciary that comes next in our system, to 
interpret and apply the public statutes, has been in our country a 
safe refuge for all who are oppressed. It is greatly to our credit as a 
nation that with rare exceptions those who have worn the judicial 
ermine in the highest tribunals of the country, and notably in the 
Supreme Court of the United States, have continued to retain the con- 
fidence of the people of the whole country. The duty of the executive 
is to administer the law ; the military power is lodged with him under 
constitutional limitations. He does not frame statutes, though in 
most States and under our national government a veto power is 
lodged in him with a view to secure reconsideration of any particular 
measure. 

LAW. 

But a public executive officer has one plain duty : it is to enforce 
the law with kindness and forbearance, but with promptness and inex- 
orable decision. He may not choose what laws he will enforce any 
more than the citizen may choose what laws he will obey. We have 
here but one king : it is the law, passed by those constitutional meth- 
ods which are necessary to make it binding upon the people, and to 
that king all men must bow. It is my great pleasure to find so generally 
everywhere a disposition to obey the law. I have but one message for 



90 

the North and for the South, for the East and for the West, as I journey 
through this land. It is to hold up the law, and to say everywhere 
that every man owes allegiance to it, and that all law breakers must be 
left to the deliberate and safe judgment of an established tribunal. You 
are justly proud of your great State, Its capabilities are enormous ; its 
adaptation to comfortable life are peculiar and fine. The years will 
bring you increased population and increased wealth. I hope they will 
bring with it, marching in this stately progress of material things, those 
finer things — piety, pure homes and orderly communities. But above 
all this State pride, over all our rejoicings in the advantages which are 
about us in our respective States, we look with greater pride to that great 
arch of government that unites these States and makes of them all one 
great union. But, my fellow citizens, the difficulties that I see inter- 
posed between us and the train which is scheduled to depart very soon, 
warn me to bring these remarks to a speedy close. I beg again, most 
profoundly, to thank you for this evidence of your respect, this 
evidence of your love for the institutions of our common country. 

The committee of reception from Portland met the Presiden- 
tial train at Salem. 



CHEMAWA, ORE. 

A short stop was made at the Indian School at Chemawa, 
where the Indian children were drawn up in line, and the Pres- 
ident reviewed the pupils of the training school. In response to 
calls for a speech he spoke as follows : 

BENEVOLENT PURPOSES. 

My Young Friends : It gives me great pleasure to stop for a 
moment to see these evidences of the good work the government is 
doing for you, and the good work you are doing for yourselves. All 
the purposes of the government toward you and your people are benev- 
olent and friendly. It is our wish that you may become such people 
as your neighbors are— industrious, kindly, peaceful and self-respecting. 
Everything that I can do to promote this end will be gladly done. I 
hope your instructors and all those who are brought close to you will 
in every way express and carry out the benevolent and kindly inten- 
tions of the government. 



91 

OREGON CITY, ORE. 

Pioneers and army veterans turned out in full force 
and greeted President Harrison at Oregon City. A large ever- 
green arch with the word ' ' Welcome ' ' was the most prominent 
decoration at the depot. Standing beneath this the Mayor of 
the city delivered an address of welcome, and in closing called 
for three cheers for the President of the United States. They 
were given with vim and enthusiasm. The President then 
addressed the crowd as follows : 

WHERE THE LORD TAKES CARE OF THE CROPS. 

Fellow Citizens : This is a very pleasant morning reception. 
The heartiness and genuineness of your greeting is unmistakable, and 
I beg to assure you that we most heartily appreciate and return your 
kindly thoughts. You have here a most important State, one of those 
bordering on the Pacific, completing the autonomy of our great country, 
and giving us a sea-board on the Pacific as well as upon the Atlantic, 
which was essential to our completeness and separateness as a people. 
The interesting story of the early settlement of Oregon, of the inter- 
national contest, which for some time threatened international war, is 
fresh in the minds of these pioneers, and I am sure is taught to these 
children of your public schools. The work of those who set up the 
American flag here, and who secured to us this fertile region, is worthy 
of mention and of honorable commemoration by this generation, 
which is entering into their labors. Your State has added another to 
that succession of kindly greetings which began when we left the 
national capital. We have come out of the land of irrigation and roses 
into this land where the Lord takes care of the crops ; and this 
dependence upon the seasons is not without its instructive and moral 
influences. Nature seems to have made a fresh, white toilet for us as 
we have come down the banks of this beautiful river. To the 
pioneers, to those who have entered in with less labor to the inherit- 
ance left to them, to these children and to these comrades of the Grand 
Army, I give my most hearty greeting. 

PORTLAND, ORE. 

It was raining hard when the President reached Portland on 
Tuesday afternoon, but this did not dampen the reception. A 



92 

drive through the city was followed by a review^ of the parade at 
Post-Office Square. Dinner was served at the Hotel Portland, 
and then another parade followed with fireworks. Finally, on 
reaching Exposition Hall, at 8.30 p.m., the final ceremonies took 
place. Mayor De Lashmutt delivered an address of welcome, and 
the President responded as follows : 

AT OREGON'S CHIEF CITY. 

Mr. Mayor and Fellow Citizens : No more brilliant or inspiring 
scene than this has been presented to our eyes in this wonderful series 
of receptions which have been extended to us on our journey. You 
have been filled with regret to-day that your weeping skies did not 
present to us the fair spectacle which you had hoped ; and yet this ver}^ 
discouragement has but added to the glory of this magnificent reception. 
[Cheers.] To stand in the bright sunshine of a genial day and to wave 
a welcome is not so strong a proof of the affectionate interest of a people 
as you have given to-day standing in this down-pouring rain. [Cheers. ] 
In the presence of a multitude like this, in a scene made brilliant by 
these decorations, I stand inadequate to any suitable expression of the 
gratitude that fills my heart. [Cheers.] 

I was quite inclined to stand by the superintendent of the census 
in the count which he made of the States ; but I am afraid if I had 
witnessed this scene, pending your application for a recount, that it 
would have been granted. [Laughter and great cheering.] I am sorry 
that it could not have been made as the people turned out to give us 
this welcome ; I am sure no one would have been missed. [Laughter 
and cheers.] 

THE PACIFIC COAST. 

This State is interesting in its history. The establishment of the 
authority of the United States over this region was an important event 
in our national history. The possession of the Columbia and of Puget 
Sound was essential to the completeness and the roundness of our 
empire. We have here in this belt of States, reaching from the Gulf of 
California to the Straits of Fuca, a magnificent possession which we 
could not have dispensed with at all. [Cheers.] The remoteness of 
Oregon from the older settled States, the peril and privation which 
attended the steps of the pioneer as he came hither, delayed the develop- 
ment of this great country. You are now but beginning to realize the 
advantage of closer and easier communications. You are but now 
beginning to receive from an impardal and beneficent government that 
attention which you well deserve. [Cheers.] 



93 

SHIPS AND COMMERCE. 

That this river of yours should be made safe and deep, so that 
waiting commerce may come without obstruction to your wharf, is to 
be desired. [Cheers.] It should receive those appropriations which are 
necessary to make the work accomplish the purpose in view. [Cheers.] 
I believe that you may anticipate a largely increased commerce. Look- 
ing out as you do towards the regions across the Pacific, it would be 
but natural that this important centre should draw from them and 
exchange w^ith them a great and increasing commerce. [Cheers.] I am 
in entire sympathy with the suggestion of the Mayor that it is important 
that this commerce should be carried in American ships. [Cheers.] A 
few days ago, when I sailed in the harbor of San Francisco, I saw three 
great deep water ships come into that port. One carried the flag of 
Hawaii and tw^o the English flag. None bore at the masthead the stars 
and stripes. I believe it is the duty of the national government to take 
such steps as will restore the American merchant marine. [Cheers.] 
Why shall we not have our share in the great commerce of the w^orld ? 
I cannot but believe — and such inspiring presences as this but kindle 
and confirm my belief — that we are come to a time when this nation 
should look to the future and step forward bravely and courageously in 
new lines of enterprise. [Cheers.] 

The Nicaragua Canal should be completed. [Cheers.] Our 
harbors should have adequate defense. [Cheers.] We should have 
upon the sea a navy of first-class ships [Cheers.] We are here in the 
most kindly relations to these South x\merican and Central American 
countries. We have been content that Europe should do the commerce 
of these nations. We have not availed ourselves of the advantages of 
neighborhood and of friendly kindred republican institutions to develop 
our commerce with those people. We have, fortunately, as a result of 
the great conference of American nations, set on foot measures that I 
confidently hope will bring to us speedily our just share of this great 
commerce. [Cheers.] 

CITIZENSHIP, 

I am glad to know that we are here to-night as American citizens, 
lovers of the one flag and the one Constitution. [Enthusiastic cheer- 
ing.] Proud of Oregon ! Yes, you may well be proud of Oregon. 
But, my countrymen, above all, crowning all, greater than all, is our 
American citizenship. [Great cheering.] What would one of these 
States be without the other ? What is it that gives us prestige abroad 
and power at home ? It is that we have formed a government of the 
people; that w^e have one flag, and speak with one vt)ice to all the 
nations of the earth. [Enthusiastic cheering.] I hope that narrow 



94 

sentiment that regards the authority of the United States or its officers 
as aUen or strange has once and forever been extinguished in this land 
of ours. [Great cheering. ] My countrymen, I am profoundly grate- 
ful for this magnificent demonstration. I accept it as a tribute to your 
institutions and to your country. No man is worthy of it ; he can only 
return for it a fresh consecration of himself to the duties of public 
office and private citizenship. [Great cheering. ] Again I assure you 
that you have given us to-day what is to my mind, under the conditions, 
taking into account the population of your city, the most splendid 
demonstration we have seen on the whole journey. [Prolonged and 
enthusiastic cheering.] 



MAY 6— CENTRALIA, ORE. 

President Harrison left Portland at i o'clock on Wednesday, 
May 6. The first stop was a short one at Chehalis, and 
although it was 6 o'clock in the morning, man}^ of the party 
w^ere up and acknowledged the hearty welcome accorded them. 
The next stop was at Centralia, where the party were received 
with the national salute, and although it rained in torrents the 
President made his speech from the rear platform, speaking as 
follows : 

GOOD SOIL LASTS. 

My Fellow Citizens : It is very kind of you to turn out so 
early in the morning. I can count among my pleasantest experi- 
ences in the Northwest this very early rising. I am a good deal of 
a Daniel Webster as to early risings. [Laughter.] It gives me 
great pleasure to notice the evidence of increased population as 
contrasted with what I saw six years ago as I passed through this 
country. I was so unfortunate then as to find it enveloped in smoke, 
so that the mountain tops were invisible. I am afraid we are to 
have this experience repeated on this visit on account of the fog. I 
suppose this is because the beauties of your country are so great 
that they have to be shaded to the eyes of a stranger. Seriously, 
however, you have a great commonwealth. I do not doubt that 
your future is to be one of great development and great increase in 
population, and that you are to found here a very contented, pros- 
perous and happy people. Fortunately you have a capacity for great 
agricultural development after you have cleared away the forests; 



95 

and that after all is the permanent foundation of every Ameri- 
can city. It is well enough to have trees on the land and mines in 
the earth ; but trees will be cut down and mines be dug out, and the 
only thing that lasts is good soil in the hands of good husbandmen. 
I thank you most sincerely. [Cheers.] 

TACOMA, WASH. 

Tacoma was reached at 8 o'clock, amid a terrible rain storm. 
Governor Ferry, Maj^or Kandle and a committee met the Presi- 
dent at the depot. A parade started for a march through the 
city and under four grand arches on Pacific Avenue. These 
were made of novel products of the State, the first being of fir 
wood blocks, the second of coal, the third of iron and the fourth 
of grain. On reaching Gross Block, which was profusely deco- 
rated with flowers, flags and pictures of ex-presidents, the party 
mounted the platform where the addresses of welcome were de- 
livered. Governor Ferry welcomed the President on behalf of 
the State, and General John W. Sprague delivered an address of 
welcome on behalf of the cit3\ President Harrison responded as 
follows : 

A MAGICAL TRANSFORMATION. 

My Fellow Citizens : I feel that it would be cruel to prolong 
this exposure which you are enduring in the inclement weather of 
the day. I visited your city and the region of Puget Sound six 
years ago. I found this country then enveloped in smoke, so that 
these grand mountain tops, of which mention has been made in the 
address of welcome, were hidden from our view. I come again and 
the smoke is replaced by fog, and we are still, I suppose, to take the 
existence of these snow-clad peaks on faith. [Laughter and ap- 
plause.] I don't know but there is a benevolent provision for your 
comfort in the fact that this magnificent scenery, this unmatched 
body of water are frequently hidden from the eye of the traveler. 
If every one who journeys hither could see it all, everybody would 
want to live here, and there wouldn't be room. [Laughter and 
cheers.] I congratulate you, citizens of Tacoma, upon the magnifi- 
cent, almost magical, transformation which has been wrought here 
in these six years since I first saw your city. It has been amazing ; 



96 

it is a tribute to the energy and the enterprise and courage of your 
people that will endure and increase, and attract in a yet higher 
degree the attention of the whole country. 

BOLD PROGRESS. 

A harbor like this, so safe and commodious and deep, upon 
Puget Sound, should be made to bear a commerce that is but yet in 
its infancy. I would like to see the prows of some of these great 
steamship lines entering your ports and carrying the American flag 
at the masthead. [Cheers.] I believe we have come to the time 
in our development as a people, when we must step forward with 
bold progress, or we will lose the advantage we have already 
attained. We have within ourselves the resources, and a market of 
which the world is envious. We have been content, in the years 
gone by, to allow other nations to do the carrying trade of the 
world. We have been content to see the markets of these Ameri- 
can republics lying south of us, mastered and controlled by Euro- 
pean nations. I think the period of discontent with these things 
has now come to our people, and I believe the time is auspicious for 
the enlargement of our commerce with these friendly republics lying 
to the south of us. I believe the time is propitious for re-establish- 
ing upon the sea the American merchant marine, that shall do its 
share of the carrying trade of the world. [Applause.] 

My friends, I desire to again express to you my regret that to 
give us this magnificent welcome, under circumstances so inauspi- 
cious, you have been exposed to so much wet. I especially re- 
gretted, as I passed those long lines of dear school children, that 
they should have been exposed in order to do us honor. I will not 
detain you longer. For your city, for this magnificent young State 
that we have received into the great sisterhood of the Union, of 
which you are a glorious part, we give our aspirations, our prayers 
and our best endeavors. [xA.pplause.] 

PUGET SOUND— (On Steamer.) 

The party left Tacoma at lo o'clock for Seattle. They went 
by steamer through the Puget Sound. As the boat entered the 
sound the Seattle committee of welcome formed a semi-circle 
around the Presidential party and the military escort, and Mayor 
White delivered an address of welcome to Seattle. 

The President's reply was brief. He said : 



97 

PHGENIX. 

Mr. Mayor : I accept with great gratification these words of 
welcome on behalf of the citizens of Seattle. It will give me great 
pleasure to contrast my observations of your State in 1885 with what 
I shall see to-day. I have not lost track of the progress of Seattle, 
but have, through friends, been advised of the marvelous develop- 
ment which you have made, and how you have repeated in the sub- 
stantial character of your edifices the story of the Chicago fire, com- 
ing, as you have, out of what seemed a disaster with increased mag- 
nificence, and finding in it really an advantage. I will defer until I 
am in the presence of your people any further acknowledgment of 
your courtesies, and will now only thank you, as you are repeating 
here what we have observed on our whole trip, namely, the unifica- 
tion of all our people, and the absolute oneness of sentiment in 
devotion to our institutions and the flag. 

SEATTLE— (In the City.) 

On arriving at Seattle a parade was formed through the 
city and followed by a trip to Lake Washington and a short 
excursion on that body of water. On returning to the city the 
Presidential party went to the University campus, where a grand 
stand had been erected. Here the crowd was tremendous, and 
as the President's party took their places the school children 
sang "America." Then Rev. G. A. Tewksbury offered prayer. 
Then Mayor White presented Judge Thomas Burke who wel- 
comed him to the city. The President responded as follows : 

HOPES REALIZED. 

Judge Burke and Fellow Citizens : I am sure you have 
too much kindness in your heart to ask me to make an address to 
you this afternoon. This chilly air, this drizzling rain, the long ex- 
posure during the day which you and these precious children have 
suffered, warn me, on your account, as well as my own, that I 
should say but a few words in recognition of this magnificent 
welcome. Six years ago I visited your beautiful city, and the dis- 
tinguished gentleman who has been your spokesman to-day was one 
of a hospitable committee that pointed out to me the beautfes of 
this location. You were then largely a prospective city. Some sub- 
7 



98 

stantial and promising improvements had been begun, but it was a 
period of expectancy rather than of realization. I am glad to come 
to-day and to see how fully and perfectly the large expectations then 
entertained by your enterprising people have been realized. It is a 
matter of amazement to look upon these towering substantial granite 
and iron structures in which the great business of your city is trans- 
acted. That disaster, as it seemed to you, which swept away a large 
portion of the business part of your city, was like the afflictions that 
come to the saints, a blessing in disguise. [Cheers.] You have 
done what Chicago did. You have improved the disaster by rearing 
structures and completing edifices that were unthought of before. 
Those who were not enterprising or liberal have been compelled to 
be liberal and enterprising in order that they might realize rents for 
their property made vacant by fire. [Cheers.] 

PUGET SOUND. 

I fully appreciate the importance of this great body of water 
upon which your city is situated. This Sound, this inland sea, 
must be in the future the highway, the entrepot, of a great 
commerce. I do most sincerely believe that we are entering 
now upon a new development that will put the American flag 
upon the seas and bring to our ports in American bottoms a 
largely increased share of the commerce of the world. [Cheers.] 
As I have said in other places, for one I am thoroughly dis- 
contented with the present condition of things. We may differ 
as to methods, but I believe the great patriotic heart of our 
people is stirred, and that they are bent upon recovering that 
share of the world's commerce which we once happily enjoyed. 
Your demonstration to-day under these unfavorable environments 
has been most creditable to your city. We have certainly seen 
nothing in a journey characterized by great demonstrations to 
surpass this magnificent scene. [Cheers.] I realize what your 
spokesman has said, that in all this there is a patriotic expression of 
the love of our people for the flag and for the Constitution. 
[Cheers.] And now, my friends, thanking you for all you have 
done for me, humbly confessing my inability to repay you, pledging 
to you my best efforts to promote the good of all our people, and 
that I will have a watchful observation of the needs of your State, 
of your harbors, for defense, improvement and security, I bid you 
good-bye. [Cheers.] 



99 

SEATTLE— (Farewell from the Train.) 

At 5 o'clock the party went on board the train about 
to move off, but the great crowd cheered and cried for anocher 
speech. Although he was very tired, the President good- 
naturedly appeared on the back platform and said the few 
following words of farewell : 

I can only thank you once more ; you have given me a royal wel- 
come, and I carry away with me the most grateful memory of your 
kindness. I was up until past midnight last night, making a speech, 
and had to be up at 6 o'clock this morning to speak to some friends in 
Oregon. I leave you with the best wishes for your city and the State. 

PUYALLUP, ORE. 

Just before midnight the train stopped for a few minutes 
at Puyallup, and the President appeared for a moment on the 
back platform. After shaking hands with quite a number of 
persons, he spoke the following words : 

HOPS. 

My Fellow Citizens : I am very glad to see you to-night, but I 
am sure you will excuse me from speaking when you remember that 1 
have been out in the rain all day at Tacoma and Seattle, and have had 
to talk several dmes. I am glad to see you, and appreciate the friendly 
interest you manifest in coming out here to-night in such great numbers 
to greet us with such kindliness. I have known for a long time of the 
great hop industry of this region, and I am glad to know that it has 
proven profitable. The question of the Puyallup reservation was one 
of the last which was brought officially to my attention before leaving, 
and I expect it will be one of the first I shall take up on my return. 
Good night and good-bye. 

CHEHALIS, ORE. 

Chehalis was reached shortly after midnight, and although 

the President was about to retire, he appeared on the back 

platform and made a short speech, saying : 

My Friends: I am very much obliged to you for this midnight 
reception. We passed you this morning without stopping, and 



lOO 

regretted it when we saw the number who had collected here. We 
gladly yielded to your request to stop to-night in order to show our 
appreciation of your kindness. It is very pleasant for me to see those 
people who have no interest in politics except for good government. 

As the train started on its way the President was greeted 
with tremendous applause. 

MAY 7th— CASCADE ROCKS, ORE. 

The train reached Cascade Rocks early in the morning, 
and in response to calls for a speech the President said : 

My Friends : I am very much obliged to you for your kindly greet- 
ing, and, as we stop only a few moments, I can only express my sincere 
thanks for your presence. 

HOOD RIVER STATION, ORE. 

A short stop was made at Hood River Station, giving the 

President time to shake hands with a few of the crowd. He 

addressed them as follows : 

My Friends : It is very pleasant to see you this morning, and 
to come out into the sunshine after two or three days of chilly rain. I 
have been talking so much and so much in the dampness that my voice 
is not very good, but my heart is always fresh and open to these recep- 
tions. I thank you very sincerely for your friendliness and wish for 
you all, and especially for these little ones, every happiness in life. 
[Cheers.] 

THE DALLES, ORE. 

Shortly after ii o'clock, and after the beautiful run down the 
gorge of the Columbia River, the booming of cannon announced 
the arrival of the Presidential train at The Dalles. A large crowd 
of people, together with soldiers and school children, welcomed the 
President when the train stopped in front of the Umatilla House. 
Ex-Governor Moody introduced Mayor Moody, and the latter, in 
behalf of the city, welcomed the President in a neat speech. 



lOI 

After the welcoming cheers had ceased the President responded 
as follows : 

A USEFUL MOVE. 

My Friends : I have spoken at all times of the night and all 
hours of the day, and under conditions much less auspicious than 
those around us this morning. We have here a bright sunshine and 
a bracing air, and everything in nature adds to the gladness of this 
demonstration which you have made in our honor. I most sincerely 
thank you for this evidence of your friendliness. I assure you that 
it is very pleasant, and I cannot but believe that it is very useful 
for those who are charged with public duties at Washington occa- 
sionally to move about a little and look into the faces of the plain, 
patriotic people of the country. Most of the people who come to see 
me at Washington want something, and as the provision made by law 
is not adequate to meet all these wants there is very apt to be a great 
deal of discontent ; but when we get out among the great masses of 
the people, among those who are doing the work of the farm, of the 
shop and of the office, who have a patriotic pride in their country 
and its institutions, and are kindly disposed, charitable in their judg- 
ments, and who have no other interest than that the laws shall be 
faithfully executed and the whole interest of the people faithfully 
looked after, we find great refreshment in their presence. I am sure 
we have such an audience here this morning. You will not expect 
of any officer that he will altogether avoid mistakes ; you have a right 
to expect a conscientious, courageous fidelity to public duty. I quite 
sympathize with the suggestion of your Mayor, that it is one of the 
proper government functions to improve and to open to safe naviga- 
tion the great waterways of our country. The government of the 
United States has reserved to itself the exclusive control of all navi- 
gable inland waters, and that being so, it is, of course, incumbent 
upon the government to see that the people have the best possible 
use of them. They are important, as they furnish cheap transporta- 
tion, and touch points that are often, either for economy or natural 
reasons, inaccessible to railway traffic. I thank you again for your 
interest and bid you a kindly farewell. If no ill happens to you that 
I do not wish, and all the good comes to you that I do wish in your 
behalf, your lives will be full of pleasantness and peace. 



I02 

PENDLETON, ORE. 

Several stops were made between The Dalles and Pendle- 
ton. The Presidential party experienced the disagreeable effect 
of a sand storm at Chillo, were greeted by Indians at Arling- 
ton and Umatilla Junction, and finally, at 5 o'clock in the 
afternoon, after a journey through the sand wastes of the 
Columbia and Umatilla Valleys, arrived at Pendleton. The 
Indians at this place had made the day one of feasting. They 
had celebrated what they called a ' ' big eat, ' ' and were in fine 
spirits when the President arrived. The usual salutes and 
cheers greeted the party, and a picturesque effect was made by 
several hundred Indians dressed in blankets and feathers 
among the crowd. They belonged to the Umatilla, Cay use 
and Walla Walla tribes, and the leader carried a large American 
flag. The President was welcomed by Mayor Raley, and 
responded as follows : 

THE FLAG. 

My Fellow Citizens : Among all the surprises that have 
greeted us on our journey, I do not remember any that burst upon 
us with more suddenness than "this beautiful sight that you have 
arranged for our welcome here. Traveling for some hours through 
a sparsely settled region, I did not at aU anticipate that so large an 
assemblage could be gathered here. I am glad to read in your 
faces a full confirmation of the Mayor's words of welcome. You 
have a pride in the common heritage of government which our 
fathers organized for us. You honor the flag which floats about us 
here. It is pleasant to meet here, scattered over these plains of the 
West, so many veterans of the great civil war, men who came out 
of the army poor as they went into it, men who did not serve their 
country for reward, but out of a loving fealty to its flag and to their 
government ; men who asked no questions about pay, but went with 
loyal hearts to battle, determined that the flag should be maintained 
in its supremacy from sea to sea ; men who, returning safely from 
the vicissitudes of the camp and the march, and from the perils of 
battle, have been ever since giving their brave endeavors to open 
this new country, to increase its prosperity, and by honorable labor 



I03 

to make comfortable homes for themselves and their children. I 
greet you to-day, comrades, with a loving heart. God grant that 
these later days, for years are increasing with us all, may be full of 
sunshine, full of the respect of your neighbors, full of prosperity, 
and crowned at last with the full blessing of immortality. 

THE LIGHT AND LIFE OF OUR HOUSEHOLDS. 

To these little ones now enjoying the beneficent provisions which 
your State has made for their care and education, I give the most affec- 
tionate greeting. The children of this land are the light and the life 
of our households. They are in the family what the blossoms are in 
the orchard and garden. May they appreciate the blessings they 
enjoy, and when they come to mature years and take up the unfin- 
ished labors of their fathers, may they hold aloft the flag which 
their fathers followed to battle, and maintain all those things that 
conduce to decent and orderly communities and to the purity of the 
home. To these pioneers who have under discouragements and 
great difficulties sought these western homes, and opened the way 
for civilization, I give my greeting, and to all I give the assurance 
that these distant States are not forgotten by us who are, for the time, 
chosen to administer public office at Washington. We take you all 
into our consideration, our confidence and our affection. I believe 
there is a great community of interest that touches all our States. I 
believe that our legislation should be as broad as our territory, 
should not be for classes, but should be always in the interest of all 
our people. And now, thanking you for this most interesting and 
cordial welcome, I bid you good-bye. 



LE GRAND, ORE. 

Le Grand was illuminated, and gave an enthusiastic recep- 
tion to the President. Mayor Finn delivered an address of 
welcome, and the President responded as follows : 

THE NORTH LAND. 

My Fellow Citizens : It is very gratifying to see this vast 
assembly here to-night, and I regret that our arrival was not in the day- 
light, that we might have a better view of this city and its surroundings, 
as well as of these prosperous and happy people who are assembled 
here to-night. We have traveled many thousands of miles on this 
journey, and it has been one continued succession of happy greetings. 



I04 

We have passed through the land of flowers, and they have strewn our 
pathway with them. We have come now to this north land where the 
flowers are not so abundant, but where the welcome and heartiness of 
the people is quite as manifest and quite as sincere, I rejoice to have 
had the opportunity to see portions of the State of Oregon which I had 
not previously visited. Your industries and products are so varied that 
working together, supplying the wants of different communities by the 
productions of each, it must be that you shall grow in population, and 
that the rewards of your labor shall be full and rich. But above all 
these material things in which you show the country the resources Oi 
our people, I rejoice that social order — education, good morals, and 
all those things that tend to promote the human happiness, the peace 
of your communities, and the glory of your State, are also here thought 
of and promoted. [Cheers.] We are citizens of one great country, 
and I do not believe there is a nation in the world where there is a 
more perfect unification of heart and purpose than in the United States 
of America. I do not believe there is anywhere any people more 
earnestly in love with their institutions and with the flag that symbolizes 
them, more in love with peace and peaceful industries, and yet stronger 
in their defense of the truth and of the right. [Cheers.] I beg again 
to thank your citizens of this city and of the surrounding country for 
this gracious and hospitable welcome. [Cheers.] 

BAKER CITY, ORE. 

By special invitation, at quarter to ii o'clock p.m., the 
train stopped at Baker Cit}^ where, amid the general illumina- 
tion and great enthusiasm, the President made the following 
address to the crowd : 

TRANSPORTATION. 

Mr. :\Iayor and Fellow Citizens : Is is very pleasing, so late at 
night, to be greeted on our arrival here by this large audience and by 
these hearty cheers. We thank you very sincerely for this evidence of 
your friendly interest, and beg to assure you in return that, not only as 
public officers, but as citizens with you of this great country, we are in 
hearty sympathy with all your pursuits and plans and hopes in this 
distant State. I have heard before of its beauty and the fertility and 
productiveness of its wheat fields and of the rich mines which are found 
in this vicinity. Situated as you are, the great question with you must be 
one of transportation, one of getting the products of} our field, the sur- 
plus of your agricultural products, to a market. I hope you appreciate 



I05 

all the advantages in this regard which the development of these Pacific 
cities is giving. Every great manufacturing estabUshment that is built 
there produces and increases population, and makes additional and 
nearer market for the products of your fields. I hope the day is not 
far distant when the completion of the Nicaragua Canal will make a 
shorter way to the Atlantic sea-board States and much shorter and cheaper 
communication with a European market. I am glad to be assured — 
indeed, I do not need the assurance — that here in Oregon, in the Cen- 
tral and Eastern States, we are one people, loyal and united in the 
love for the flag which some of these comrades aided to be victorious in 
the great war, and that you are thoroughly in love with our American 
institutions. I am glad to assure you that, so far as I am concerned, I 
know no sections in this country. I desire to promote those measures 
which shall always be for the interests of all classes, and which shall 
diffuse the benefits of our institutions equally and fairly among all the 
States and among all our people. 

MAY 8— BOISE CITY, IDAHO. 

Boise City was reached, at 7 o'clock, and a two hours' stop 
was made in the city. The President was met at the depot by 
the local committee, soldiers, school children, and an immense 
crowd of citizens from all over the country. A parade escorted 
the party to a public stand where, in response to an address ot 
welcome by Governor Wiley, the President responded as fol- 
lows : 

IDAHO. 

My Friends : This is instructive and inspiring to us all as 
American citizens. It is my great pleasure to stand for a little 
while this morning in the political Capitol of this fresh and new 
State. I had great satisfaction in taking an official part in admitting 
Idaho to the Union of States. I believed that it \vas possessed of a 
population and resources and capable of a development that fairly 
entitled her to take her place among the States of the American 
Union. You are starting now upon a career of development which 
I hope and believe will be uninterrupted. Your great mineral re- 
sources now being rapidly developed, have already brought you great 
wealth. Undoubtedly these are to continue to be a source of enrich- 
ment and prosperity to your State, but I do not forget that we 
must look at last for that paramount and enduring prosperity and in- 



io6 

crease which our States should have to a development of their agri- 
cultural resources. You will, of course, as you have done, carefully 
guard and secure your political institutions. You will organize them 
upon a basis of economy, and yet of liberal progress. You will take 
care that only so much revenue is taken from the people as is neces- 
sary to the proper public expenditure. [Applause.] 

THE NATION'S SYMBOL. 

I am glad to see that this banner of liberty, this flag of our fa- 
thers, this flag that these — my comrades here present — defended with 
honor and brought home with victory from the bloody strife of the 
civil war, is held in honor and estimation among you. [Great applause.] 
Every man should take off his hat when the starry flag moves by. It 
symbolizes a free republic ; it symbolizes a nation ; not an aggrega- 
tion of States, but one compact, solid government in all its relations 
to the nations of the earth. [Applause.] Let us always hold it in 
honor. I am glad to see that it floats, not only over your political 
Capitol, but over the school houses of your State ; the children 
should be taught in the primary schools to know its story and to love 
it. To these young children, entering by the beneficent and early pro- 
vision of your State into the advantages of that great characteristic 
American institution — the common school — I give my greeting this 
morning. May every good attend them in life, and as the cares of 
life come on to take the place of the joys of childhood, God grant 
that, instructed in mind and heart in those things that are high and 
good, they may bear with honor the responsibility which you will soon 
lay down. 

To these comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic, sur- 
vivors of the great war, upon whom the years are making their im- 
pression, I do not doubt that these who stand by me have borne an 
honorable part among your fellow citizens in the development of the 
resources of this, their adopted State. Not long will we tarry; but, 
my comrades, the story of what you have done is undying, and I 
doubt not this morning that the satisfaction of having had some 
small part in redeeming this nation and preserving its integrity will fill 
your hearts with gladness, even under adverse conditions of life. A 
grateful nation honors you. Every community should give you its 
respect, and I can only add to-day a comrade's greeting and a heartv 
God bless you all. 



POCATELLO, IDAHO. 

It was quite late when the party reached Pocatello on Fri- 
day night, May 8, and a great crowd, including many Indians 
and pioneers of that region, were at the station to welcome the 
President. Governor Thomas, of Utah, and a committee from 
Salt Lake City, also met the party at this point. When the 
train stopped the crowd made loud and repeated calls for a 
speech, and the President addressed them in the following 
words : 

PIONEERS. 

Fellow Citizens : In 1881, that sad summer when General 
Garfield lay so long in agony and the people suffered so long in painful 
suspense, I passed up the Utah & Northern Narrow-gauge Railroad 
through this place — if it was a place then — to Montana on a visit. 
The country through which we have passed is therefore not unfamiliar 
to me. I have known of its natural conditions, and I have seen its 
capabilities when brought under the stimulating influence of irrigation. 
I have had, during my term in the Senate, as chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Territories of that body, to give a good deal of attention to 
the condition and needs of our Territories. My sympathy and interest 
have always gone out to those who, leaving the settled and populous 
parts of our country, have pushed the frontiers of civilization farther 
and farther to the westward until they have met the Pacific Ocean and 
the setting sun. Pioneers have always been enterprising people. If 
they had not been they would have remained at home ; they endured 
great hardships and perils in opening these great mines of minerals 
which show in your State, and in bringing into subjection these wild 
plains and making them blossom like gardens. To all such here I 
would do honor, and you should do honor, for they were heroes in the 
struggle for the subjugation of an untamed country to the uses of man. 
I am glad to see that you have here so many happy and prosperous 
people. I rejoice at the increase of your population, and am glad to 
notice that with this development in population and in material wealth 
you are giving attention to those social virtues — to education and those 
influences which sanctify the home, make social order secure, and honor 
and glorify the institutions of our common country. [Cheers.] 

FARMS FOR THE INDLA.NS. 

I am glad, not only for the sake of the white man, but of the red 
man, that these two extensive and useless reservations are being reduced 



io8 

by allotment to the Indians of farms, which they are expected to culti- 
vate and thereby to earn their own living [cheers], that the unneeded 
lands shall furnish homes for those who need homes. [Cheers.] 

And now, fellow citizens, extending to such comrades of the 
Grand Army of the Republic as I see scattered about through this 
audience my most cordial greeting as a comrade ; to these children and 
these ladies who share with you the privations of early life on the 
frontier, and to all my most cordial greeting and most sincere thanks 
for your kindly demonstration, I will bid you good-bye. [Great 
cheering.] 

MAY 9— SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH. 

Three speeches were made by the President in Salt Lake 
City. It was shortly after 3 o'clock in the morning when the 
train reached the " Zion " City, but the party did not leave the 
train until 7 o'clock. Escorted by Governor Thomas, Mayor 
Scott, soldiers, and a large body of citizens, the party at 8 o'clock 
drove to the Walker House, where breakfast was served. Then 
a procession— composed of United States troops, State Guards, 
G. A. R. veterans, pioneers and local organizations — escorted 
the President to Liberty Park. Governor Thomas and Mayor 
Scott both made addresses of welcome, and President Harrison 
responded as follows : 

NEW STATES. 

Fellow Citizens : The scenes which have been presented to 
us in this political and commercial metropolis of the Territory of Utah 
have been very full of beauty and full of hope. I have not seen in 
all this long journey, accompanied as it has been with every manifesta- 
tion of welcome and crowned with flowers, anything that touched my 
heart more than that beautiful picture on one of your streets this 
morning when the children from the free public schools of Salt Lake 
City, waving the one banner that we all love [cheers] and singing 
an anthem of praise to that beneficent Providence that led our 
worthy forefathers to land and has followed the pathway of this 
nation with His beneficent care until this bright hour, gave us their 
glad welcome. [Applause and cheers.] 

My service in public life has been such as to call my special 
attention to, and to enlist my special interest in, the people of 



I09 

the territories. It has been a pleasant duty to welcome the Dakotas,. 
Washington, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming into the great sisterhood 
of the States. [Applause.] I think it has not fallen to any Presi- 
dent of the United States to receive into the Union so large a 
number of States. The conditions that surround you in this Terri- 
tory are of the most hopeful character. The diversity of your 
productions, your mines of gold and silver, iron, lead and coal, placed 
in such proximity as to make the work of mining and reduction easy 
and economical ; your well-watered valley capable, under the skillful 
touch of the husbandman, of transformation from barren wastes into 
fruitful fields — all these lying in easy reach and intercommunication, 
one with the other, must make the elements of a great commercial 
and political community. [Applause.] You do not need to doubt 
the future. You will step forward confidently and progressively in 
the development of your great material wealth. 

THE SUPREME LAW. 

The great characteristic of our American institutions — the com- 
pact of our government — is that the will of the majority, expressed by 
legal methods at the ballot-box, shall be the supreme law of all our 
community. To the Territories of the United States a measure 
of local government has always been given, but the supervisory 
control, the supreme legislative and executive power has been, con- 
tinuously, as to the Territories, held and exercised by the general 
government at Washington. The Territorial State has always been 
regarded as a temporary one. The general government has always 
looked forward to a division of its vast domain — first, the territory 
northwest of the Ohio, then the Louisiana purchase, then these 
accessions upon the Pacific coast — into suitable sections for the estab- 
lishment of free and independent States. [Applause and cheers.] 
This great work of creating States has gone forward from the Ohio to 
the Pacific, and now we may journey from Maine to Puget Sound 
through established States. [Cheers.] 

LIBERTY NOT LICENSE. 

The purity of the ballot-box, the wise provisions and careful 
guardianship that shall always make the expression of the will of the 
people fair, pure and true, is the essential thing in American life. 
[Cheers.] We are a people organized upon principles of liberty, but, 
my good countrymen, it is not license. It is liberty within and under 
the law. [Great applause.] I have no discord, as a public officer, 
with men of any creed or politics if they will obey the law. [Ap- 



no 

plaiise.] My oath of office, my public duty, requires me to be 
against those who violate the law. 

The foundation of American life is the American home. That 
which distinguishes us from other nations whose political experience 
and history have been full of strife and discord is the American home, 
where one wife sits in single uncrowned glory. [Great applause and 
cheers.] And now, my countrymen, I beg to assure you that every 
hope you have for safe running on these lines of free government, on 
these lines of domestic and social order, I have. For every one 
of you 1 have the most cordial greeting, God bless, and keep you 
and guide you in the paths of social purity, order and peace, and make 
you one of the great communities of the American Union, [Applause 
and cheers.] 

The second speech was made at the new Chamber of Com- 
merce. The President formally opened the building for business, 
and in the course of the ceremonies said : 

ENERGY IN BUSINESS. 

I am very glad to witness in this magnificent structure, which 
you are opening to-day for your use, an evidence of the commercial 
importance of the city. Organizations of this character are very 
useful when rightly conducted, very promotive of the business pros- 
perity of the cities in which they are established and of the best 
interest of their membership. It is quite right that those who may be 
engaged in the rivalries of business, pushing their several lines of trade 
with the energ}^ and enterprise that characterize our people, should 
now and then assemble and lay aside things that are personal and 
selfish and consider the things that affect the whole community. 
These organizations, as I have known them in other States, have been 
the council chamber in which large and liberal things have been 
devised for the devolopment of the interests and prosperity of the 
community. I do not doubt that you will do so here ; that new 
enterprise will be welcomed, and that the friendly business hand will 
be extended to those who are seeking investments. I wish you all 
success in this enterprise, and I hope you may grow until its member- 
ship shall embrace all of your commercial classes, and that its influence 
may do for your business here what the water of your mountain 
streams has done for the plains — make them grow longer and more 
productive, and at the same time expel from them those mean jeal- 
ousies which sometimes divide men. 



Ill 

After leaving the Chamber of Commerce, the President was 
driven along East Brigham Street, and as he passed along the 
school children sang "America" and "Hail Columbia." He 
addressed the little ones in the following well chosen words : 

THE HOPE OF UTAH. 

To THE School Children : In all this joyous journey through 
this land of flowers and the sunny South, I have seen nothing more 
beautiful and inspiring than this scene which burst upon us so unex- 
pectedly. This multitude of children bearing waving banners makes 
a scene which can never fade from our memories. Here, in these 
children from the free schools established and guarded by your public 
authorities, is the hope of Utah and the country. [Cheers.] I give 
you my thanks for a demonstration that has cheered my heart. May 
each of you enjoy every blessing that a free country and a more 
beneficent and kindly Creator can bestow. [Cheers.] 

The President visited the Mormon tabernacle, and during the 
da}^ shook hands with over 2000 people. The party left at 
noon for the East. Mention should be made of the elaborate 
decorations in Salt Lake City in honor of the visit, this being 
especially noticeable among the Mormon residents and build- 
ings. 

The temple was beautifully decorated. The motto, "Fear 
God; Honor the President," printed in large letters, adorned 
the south side of the building. One of the incidents of the 
visit was the presentation to the President of a solid silver 
plate, engraved with the words, "Commemorative of the 
Occasion of the Visit of the President of the United States to 
Salt Lake City, May 9, 1891." 



LEHI, UTAH. 

After leaving Salt Lake City, the first stop was made at 
the sugar factory near Lehi, Utah. Here the President ad- 
dressed the crowd, saying : 



SUGAR. 

My Friends ; This industry which you have estabUshed here is 
very interesting to me. I hope it is to open the way to a time when 
we shall have a home supply of sugar for every household. [Cheers.] 

PROVO, UTAH. 

A national salute and cheers by hundreds of citizens and 
school children greeted the President at Provo. Mayor Booth in- 
troduced the President as "the greatest man in the greatest 
country on earth," and the President, when the cheering ceased, 
spoke as follows : 

^ WOOL. 

Mr. Mayor and Fellow Citizens : This is another of those bright 
and beautiful pictures that have been spread before our eyes on this 
whole journey from Washington. I am glad to stop for a moment in 
this enterprising and prosperous city. I am glad to know that you are 
adding manufacturing to your agriculture, and that you are weaving 
some of the abundance of wool that is furnished by your flocks. It is 
the perfection of society, commercially, when you find immediately at 
your own doors a market for those things that you have to sell. You 
are a long way from the sea-board. The transportation companies, 
however fair their rates may be, must levy very heavy tolls upon your 
produce for taking it to the Atlantic or to the Pacific. It is then a 
pleasing thing when, instead of sending your wool to some distant city 
to be woven into cloth, you can do that work yourselves as you 
develop, bringing in these manufacturing industries whose employes 
consume the products of your farm and in turn give to the farmer that 
which he and his children have to wear. You are approaching the 
most independent commercial condition. When every farmer is able 
to sell from his own wagon everything he produces, and is emancipated 
from transportation tolls, he is independent and prosperous. 

I am glad to see these dear children here coming from the free 
schools of your city. The public school is a most wholesome and 
hopeful institution. It has an assimilative power possessed by no other 
institution in our country. Where the children of rich and poor mingle 
together on the play-ground and in the school-room there is produced 
a unity of feeling and a popular love for public institutions that can be 
brought about in no other way. [Cheers.] God bless and promote 
your public schools until every child in your territory shall be gathered 
into them. [Cheers.] 



113 
AMERICAN FORK, UTAH. 

A short stop was made at American Fork at i.io p.m., 
and the President was greeted with cheering and demands for a 
speech. One particular feature of this reception was the large 
number of school children gathered at the depot. The President, 
speaking to the school children, said : 

MORE CHILDREN. 

I want to express my interest in these dear children who have 
gathered here. It is very pleasant to have at all these little stations 
these expressions of your good will. I rejoice to see the develop- 
ment which has taken place in these regions since I was here a few 
years ago, and I have no doubt that it will go on until all your val- 
leys are prosperous and full of happy homes. [Cheers.] 

CASTLE GATE, UTAH. 

Castle Gate is a small mining station at the top of the spur of 
the Wahsatch Mountains, and the people turned out eri masse to 
welcome the President and his party. It was quite late when the 
special rolled up to the station and the reception was unique, con- 
sisting of a national salute from dynamite cartridges, exploded by 
electricity. The President made a short, complimentary speech, 
thanking the people for their hearty welcome, and complimented 
them on the industry and activity displayed by them even on the 
top of the mountains. 

SPRINGVILLE, UTAH. 

The President stopped long enough at Springville, Utah, to 
make a short speech. The reception was one of the most cordial 
given the party at any place of its size. The President, speaking 
from the rear platform of the train, said : 

PUBLIC SERVANTS. 

My Friends : Your towns in Utah are very close together. I 
scarcely close an address at one before we are in the corporate limits of 



114 

another; but I am glad to receive here this pleasant welcome. The 
evidence of kindliness which I read in all your faces is very reassuring 
and very comforting. It is delightful, I think, to those who are 
charged with public duties to come now and then and look into the 
faces of the people who have no other interest than that the govern- 
ment shall be well administered. [Cheers. J I cannot hope, of course, 
to give a post-office to everybody. I have endeavored in the selection 
of those who are to administer the functions of public office for the 
general government to secure good men. I have desired that every- 
where they should understand that they were the servants of the people. 
[Applause.] That they were to give the best public service possible, 
and that they were to treat everybody alike. 

It has been very pleasant to-day to ride through this most extra- 
ordinary valley, and to notice how productive your fields are, and how 
genial and kindly your people are. [Cheers.] 

I am to do whatever I can in public office to serve our people. 
I am glad to contribute whatever I can as a citizen to the general pros- 
perity and to the glory and dignity of our country. [Cheers.] 

And now one word or two to these few comrades who gather 
about me. They are not many, but they are entitled to honor. Those 
who struggled in the early years to establish homes in the West, and 
those who in the hour of public distress and peril bared their breasts to 
the shaft of battle that the nation might live, are worthy of the highest 
regard. [Cheers.] You have entered into the heritage which they 
bought and preserved. May you, with as true loyal hearts as they, 
preserve and hand down to your children these institutions. [Cheers. ] 



MAY lo— GLENWOOD SPRINGS, COL. 

The President spent a quiet Sunday morning at Glenwood 
Springs. He attended Divine Service at the First Presbyterian 
Church, and heard a sermon by the Rev. Dr. Rudolph. At 3 
o'clock a children's mass meeting was held at Durand's Opera 
House, and the entire Presidential party attended. Rev. H. M. 
Law presided, and the President made the following speech : 

INSPIRATION. 

Mr. Mayor, Fellow Citizens and Children : Our stop at 
Glenwood Springs was, as you all know, intended to be for rest ; and 
yet I have not felt that I could deny myself to this large body of 



115 

friends assembled from the homes of this city, and, perhaps, to an 
even larger body of friends who have come from some of the neigh- 
boring towns to pay their respects and testify their good will. The 
trip we have been making has been a prolonged one, and it has been 
a continued experience of speech-making and hand-shaking ; hence 
the physical labor has been very great, and I think if one had been 
called upon to do the same amount of work without the stimulus and 
inspiration which have come from the happy faces and kind hearts of 
the people who have greeted us almost any man would have given 
out. Certainly I would had I not been borne up and helped by the 
wonderful kindness of our people. 

I have been intensely interested in what I have seen. It has 
testified to me of the unity of the people East and West. Out here 
you take on some peculiarities as we do in Indiana, but underneath 
these peculiarities there is the same true American grit and spirit. 
[Applause.] It is not wonderful that this should be so. It is not a 
mere likeness between different people, because yoii are precisely 
the same people that I have known in the Central and Eastern States. 
Everywhere I have gone I have seen Hoosiers ; everywhere Mr. 
Wanamaker has gone he has seen Pennsylvanians ; everywhere 
General Rusk has gone Wisconsin hands have been reached up to him. 
These new States have been filled up by the enterprising and pushing 
young men of the older States. They have set out to find here 
greater advantages, more rapid pathways to wealth and competence. 
Many of them have found it, many of them are still perhaps in the 
hard struggle of life, but to you all, to every man, whether he is mine- 
owner or handles the pick, I bring you my warmest sympathy and my 
most sincere thanks for your friendly greeting. [Applause.] 

WISE INSTITUTIONS. 

Our government was instituted by wise men — men of broad views. 
It was based upon the idea of the equal rights of men. It absolutely 
rejects the idea of class distinction and insists that men should be 
judged by their behavior. That is a good rule ; those who are law- 
abiding and well disposed ; those who pursue their vocations lawfully 
and with due respect to the rights of others are the true American 
citizens. [Applause.] I am glad to know that the love of our insti- 
tutions is so deeply imbedded in your hearts. It has been a most 
delightful and cheering thing to see that the starry banner, the same 
old flag that was carried amid the smoke of battle, the rattle of 
musketry, booming of cannon and the dying of men, is in the hands 
of such children. [Applause.] Some of the prettiest as well as some 



of the most hopeful sights we have looked upon have been these com- 
panies of children gathered on the streets or hill-sides waving this 
banner. 

The American institutions deserve our watchful care. All our 
communities should be careful in the beginning to establish law and 
maintain it. It is very difficult when lawlessness once obtains the 
upper hand to put it down. It is very easy to keep it out of any com- 
munity if the well-disposed, true-hearted people will sink all their 
differences, religious and political, and stand together as citizens for 
the good of their municipality. [Applause.] 

THE SABBATH. 

I want to thank these children who have gathered for this 
Sabbath-day's observance. I have had a life that has been full of 
labor. From my early manhood until this hour my time has had 
many demands upon it. I have been under the pressure of the 
practice of my profession. I have been under the pressure of political 
campaigns and of public office, and yet in all these pursuits, and under 
all these conditions, I have found simply, as a physical question, with- 
out reference to its religious aspects at all, that I could do more 
work by working six days than seven. [Applause.] 

I think you will all find it so, and that as a civil institution rest on 
the Sabbath day is good for man. It is not only good, but it is the 
right of the working man. [Applause.] Men should have one free 
day in which to think of their families, of themselves, of things that 
are not material, but are spiritual. [Applause.] 

I desire to express from a sincere and earnest heart my thanks to 
you all for all your kindness, giving you in return simply the pledge 
that I will in all things keep in mind what seems to me to be the true 
interests of our people. [Applause.] I have no thought of sections, 
I have no thought upon any of the great public questions that does 
not embrace the rights and interests of all our people and all our 
States. [Applause.] I believe we shall find a common interest and 
safe ground upon all these great questions, and by moderating our 
own views and making reasonable and just concessions, we shall find 
them all settled wisely and in the true interest of the people. 
[Applause.] 

During the afternoon a committee from Leadville pre- 
sented the President and Mrs. Harrison with souvenirs from 
that city. The committee from Aspen gave the President dur- 
ing the afternoon an elegant souvenir from that mining town. 



117 
MAY II— LEADVILLE, COL. 

At 7.30 A.M., Monday, May 11, the Presidential party 
reached Leadville. A regular western reception was given 
them, and (although the stay was only one and a half hours) 
the party were rushed through the city and visited the mines 
in regular Leadville style. It w^as a rush from the time the 
train arrived until it left. A great deal of sight-seeing and 
souvenir-presenting took place, and in response to Judge God- 
dard's address of welcome and the presentation of a silver 
brick, the President replied as follows : 

AMERICAN PLUCK. 

Mr. Mayor and Fellow Citizens : This rare, pure atmos- 
phere, this bright sunshine, the national colors, this multitude of Hfted, 
smiling faces to greet us is a scene that should raise the dullest heart 
to emotions of thankfulness and pride — pride wholy separated from 
personal considerations ; a pride in which everything personal is swal- 
lowed up by the contemplation that all this is the outcome, the mani- 
festation, the culmination of free American institutions. [Cheers.] We 
stand here on this mountain top and see what I think is the highest 
evidence of American pluck to be found in the United States. 
[Laughter and applause.] I have addressed my fellow citizens on 
many thousands of occasions, but never before stood so near the 
dome. [Cheers.] It is a wonderful testimony to the energy and 
adaptation of the American that he should have pushed his way to this 
high altitude, above the snow line, and erected here these magnificent 
and extensive industries and these beautiful and happy homes. I 
rejoice with you in all that has been accomplished here. 

mines. 

I bring thanks to you for that great contribution you have made 
to the wealth of a country we all love. [Cheers.] I bring to you the 
assurance that as an individual citizen and as a public officer my 
interest, my affection and my duty embrace all the people of this land. 
[Cries of " good," and cheers.] 

I am glad to know we have in the past history of our country 
found that happy unity of interest which has acted beneficially upon 
all our institutions and all our people. With due regard to all local 
interests, we should seek that general legislation which touches witli 



kindly fingers the humblest homes in our land. I do most sincerely 
thank you for this token of the product of your mines. It is a precious 
metal, but much more precious to me is the kindly thought and the 
generous welcome which you have given us in Leadville. [Cheers.] 

My lungs are unaccustomed to this rare and stimulating atmos- 
phere, and you will permit me to close by giving you all, to the men 
who, deep down in these mines, are toilsomely working out the pre- 
cious metal, to those who welcome you in your homes when you return 
from your toil, the wives and children who add grace and sweetness 
to our lives, to these children who have gathered to greet us, a most 
cordial salutation and a regretful good-bye. [Cheers.] 



BUENA VISTA, COL. 

Flags, shouts and salutes greeted the President at Buena 
Vista on his arrival there. The President was presented with a 
basket of three immense trout taken from Thompson Lake, and 
in response to an address of welcome, spoke as follows : 

COLORADO. 

My Friends : I am very glad to see your bright and kind faces this 
morning, and to tarry for a few moments, just long enough to sav 
"how do you do?" and "good-bye." It is very pleasant to find 
everywhere and at every station the same friendly looks and the same 
kindly greeting. I am glad to have an opportunity that I have not 
previously had of seeing the State of Colorado, great in her present 
condition and having a greater future development than perhaps you 
yourselves realize. This combination of agricultural and mining in- 
dustries can work but good for the high development of Colo- 
rado. Your cattle and your sheep and your mines and your agricul- 
ture in your valleys, all produce that ideal condition of things in 
which you find a nearer market for what you raise. I hope the 
time will come when in addition to smelting furnaces in your mines 
you will learn to weave the wool from your sheep in place of sending 
it abroad to be made into clothing. The more you can develop these 
things and do your own work the more prosperous will be your condi- 
tion. These dear children have cheered me heartily all the way on 
this journey. The public schools are worthy of your most thoughtful 
care. It is there that the children meet on a common ground. It is 
there class distinctions are wiped out. It is the great American insti- 
tution. You have well named vour little hamlet Buena Vista. 



119 

SALIDA, COL. 

At Salida the decorations were universal, and there was 
three times the number of the regular population of the city 
at the station. People came from all the mountains to greet 
the President, and when the train drew into the station the 
band played ' ' Yankee Doodle. ' ' Little Cora Ayres presented to 
Mrs. Harrison an album of artistically pressed flowers, while 
the Grand Army veterans gave the President many fine min- 
eral specimens of the country. In response to calls for a 
speech, the President said : 

NO DESPAIRING CLASSES. 

I have looked, with great interest, in passing through these moun- 
tain gorges at the enterprise of the people who have constructed inter- 
secting Hnes of raih-oad upon these difficult grades and through threat- 
ening canons. It has not been many days since such feats of engi- 
neering would have been regarded as impossible, and yet now rail- 
roads have touched the highest points, have gone above the snow line, 
have reached elevated mines and brought isolated valleys into rapid 
and easy communication with the more settled parts of the country. 
It has given me great pleasure to look upon the beautiful valley in 
which the town of Salida is situated, and which will undoubtedly be 
capable of large agricultural production when a system of irrigation is 
completed. It might be desirable to the people of Indiana and Illinois 
and other agricultural States if Colorado had to buy her wheat and 
corn from them, but our larger interest makes it desirable that every 
community should supply its ov/n wants. 1 anticipate with pleasure 
the day when these mountain States will not be content with mining, 
but shall add agricultural pursuits and manufacturing, and when the 
wool which is sheared from the flocks will be woven at home. 

It is a pleasant condition of things when all classes are prosperous, 
when the workingman has fair wages that leave him some margin 
above his daily necessities. I should lose hope for our institutions 
when there should be despairing classes among us. An American 
citizen could not be a good citizen who did not have hope in his 
heart. Every boy, however humble, can pass through our public 
schools and climb to any position of usefulness and honor he has the 
ability to attain. There have been marvellous instances of what courage 
and pluck and intelligence may do in this way. 



I20 

To the children I give a cordial greeting. They have been a 
happy feature of almost every gathering in the journey. I hope they 
may all receive that attention which will make them men and women 
of intelligence, and capable of taking a full share in all these good 
things in the community and in the State, for which they are to be 
responsible. 



CANON CITY, COL. 

The road from Salida to Canon City included some of the 
State's most beautiful scener>^ Through the Ro3^al Gorge the 
part}' occupied the rear platform of the observation car and en- 
joyed immensely the grand scenery. A few moments were given 
to Canon City, and the crowd at the depot included, besides 
thousands of citizens. Grand Army men and school children. 
Each child carried a basket of flowers and fruit which were 
thrown before or handed up to the President. The President 
made a short address to the gathering, speaking as follows: 

PARADISE. 

Comrades and Fellow Citizens : It gives me great pleasure to see 
you and accept with a thankful heart those cordial greetings with which 
you have met us. 1 have been talking so much since I left Washington 
that I really am almost talked out ; and yet, until I shall have altogether 
lost my voice, of which there does not seem to be any prospect, I cannot 
refrain from saying thank you to those friends who greet us with such 
affectionate interest. We do appreciate it very highly. But I do not 
at all assume it is merely your interest in me. It is, I am sure, your 
interest in the country, in its Constitution and in its flag — the flag for 
which these comrades fought, which they carried through the stress of 
battle and brought home in honor. It is our free institutions, our free 
ballot, our representative government, that you all honor in coming 
here to-day. It is very surprising and very pleasant to drop down out 
of these snow-clad summits and to have passed into our hands in the 
valley branches of peach and pear and bouquets of flowers, the first 
fruits of the spring, more genial here than it seemed to be at Leadville 
this morning. [Applause.] I am very glad to have revealed to me the 
possibilities of this country : how, under the system of irrigation, that 
which seemed to be waste, accursed of God, comes to be a very garden 



121 

of Eden in beauty and productiveness. I hope you have not only the 
fruits and flowers of Paradise, but that you have your homes in that 
state of peace and blessedness which prevailed before our first mother 
took the apple. [Applause.] To these comrades I want to give a 
comrade's greeting. I know of no higher honor in this world than to 
be called "comrade" by the survivors of those who saved the Union. 
[Applause and cheers.] 



FLORENCE, COL. 

The people of the oil district of Florence gave the President 
an enthusiastic welcome. As the train stopped some one proposed 
' ' three cheers for the first President who thought enough of us to 
come and see us." They were given with a will, and the Presi- 
dent answered them as follows : 

PETROLEUM. 

My Fellow Citizens : I am very much obliged to you for this 
greeting. I expect there have been other Presidents who thought of 
you though they have not visited you. This has been a very pleasant 
and instructive journey to me. I thought I had kept myself reasonably 
well informed of the capabilities of this country and of its productions, 
but I am amazed to find how things are put together. We come out 
of the snow where everything is barren and where labor is under ground, 
where the precious metals are being extracted, and there is nothing 
pleasant in the landscape except the snow-covered mountains, and 
presently we are into a land of fruit, and have handed up to us great 
branches laden with well-set peach and pear, and are showered again, 
as we were in California, with the flowers of the early spring, and now, 
to my surprise, we seem to be in the oil region of Pennsylvania. These 
numerous derricks and oil lodes remind us of things about Oil City. 
Until I saw them I was not aware that you had here in Colorado oil 
production. It shows us how impartial, after all, the great Creator has 
been. He has given us everywhere possibilities which, if well improved, 
will make comfortable, happy homes. You have the metals, precious 
and common, and the coal that is needed for the smelter ; oil to light 
your homes and lubricate your machinery, and these orchards and 
beautiful valleys, all in the right proximity. No man could have 
improved upon it. [Applause.] Our government intends to have a 
careful and impartial consideration of all its people. We do not 



122 

recognize classes or distinctions. We want everybody to be prosperous 
and happy, especially the working people. [Cheers.] 

I do not know how our institutions could endure unless we so 
conduct our public affairs and society that every man who is sober and 
industrious shall be able to make a good, comfortable living and lay 
something aside for old age or for evil days ; to have hope in his heart 
and better prospects for his children. That is the strength of American 
institutions. Whatever promotes that, I want to favor. Whatever 
tends to pauperize our people or impair the earning power of the 
laboring class, I do not favor. [Cheers.] 

PUEBLO, COL. 

One hour was given to Pueblo, and the time was taken up by 
a parade and a visit to the Mineral Palace. Mayor McClelland 
presented the President with the freedom of the city in the speech 
of welcome, and the President replied as follows : 

METALS. 

Mr. Mayor and Fellow Citizens : The brief time which we are 
able in this hasty journey to allot to the city of Pueblo has now almost 
expired. It has given me pleasure to drive through the streets of this 
prosperous and enterprising municipality and to see that you are con- 
centrating great business interests which must in the future make you a 
very important centre in this great State. You have in this State a 
variety of resources unexcelled, I think, by any other State. Your 
attention was very naturally first directed toward the precious metals, 
to the mining of gold and silver. The commoner ores were neglected. 
Your cities were mining camps. Nowhere in all our history has the 
American capacity for civil organization been so perfectly demonstrated 
as in the mining camps of the West. Coming here entirely beyond the 
range of civil institutions, where courts, sheriffs and police officers could 
not give a hand to suppress the unruly at a time when our mining laws 
were unframed, these pioneer miners of California, Colorado, Nevada, 
Montana and Idaho wrought out for themselves in their mining 
camps a system of government and mining laws that have received the 
approval of the State. [Cheers.] It was quite natural that interest 
should hate been first directed towards the precious metals. You are 
coming to realize that the baser metals, as we call them, with which 
your great hills are stored are of great and more lasting value. [Cheers.] 
We passed this morning through a region where I was surprised to see 
orchards that reminded me of California. Now for all these things, for 



123 

the beneficent influence under which you Hve, for that good law that 
has distributed this pubhc domain freely to every man who desires to 
make a home for himself and family, for this free government that 
extends its protection over the humblest as well as the mighty, for all 
these resources of sky and air and earth, the people of Colorado should 
be joyously thankful. [Cheers.] I am glad to hail you as fellow citizens. 
I am glad for a moment to stand in the midst of you, to see your 
great capabilities and to assure you that my best wishes are with you in 
the development of them all. [Cheers.] I am glad to know that 
Colorado, this young centennial State, has established a system of free 
public schools unexcelled by any State in the union. [Cheers.] But, 
my friends, as I said once before, I am in slavery to a railroad schedule, 
and time is up. Good-bye. [Cheers.] 

COLORADO SPRINGS, COL. 

Precisely at 6 o'clock the Presidental train stopped at 
Colorado Springs. A parade was formed, including soldiers, 
G. A. R. men, college cadets, the fire department and other 
municipal organizations. After a march through the city the 
President visited Garfield School, and addressed the children in 
the follov^dng words : 

LINCOLN AND GARFIELD. 

You have very appropriately named this school in which you 
have gathered a portion of the children of Colorado Springs for 
instruction— Garfield. I understand another of your public schools is 
named after Abraham Lincoln. That, too, is a most appropriate 
designation; for where, in all the story of our country, among its 
men who have been illustrious in civil pursuits or in war, can two names 
be found which furnish more inspiration and hope to the youth of 
the land than the names of Lincoln and Garfield. [Applause.] Both 
men came of parentage so poor that no advantages attended their early 
years, and yet each by his own indomitable will, by the persevering 
improvement of the meagre opportunities they enjoyed, reached the 
highest place in our land, and are to-day embalmed in the affec- 
tionate recollection of their countrymen. I bid you all to read the les- 
sons of these great lives, and to ponder them well, for while not all 
may achieve all they achieved, useful and honorable position may be 
achieved by you all. Wishing you every prosperity and success, I bid 
you good-bye. [Cheers.] 



124 

Returning to the hotel the parade was dismissed and the 
President had dinner. The town was iUuminated, and at 9 
o'clock the welcoming ceremonies took place from the balcony 
of the Hotel Antlers. Mayor Sprague delivered the address of 
welcome, and the President responded as follows : 

THE GARDEN OF THE GODS. 

Mr. Mayor and Fellow Citizens : I am sure you will crown 
the kindness which you have shown me to-day by permitting me to 
make my response to these words of welcome exceedingly brief. 1 
have spoken four or five times to-day, and the chill of the evening will 
not allow me to exercise my voice with the accustomed immunity, but 
I cannot refrain from saying to you how much we have been pleased 
by the hasty glimpse we have been permitted to get of this beautiful 
city. The fame of Colorado Springs has spread throughout the entire 
East. I heard much of the beauty of its location, the grandeur and 
sublimity of these mountains that stand about bulwarked, as it is, like 
Jerusalem of old ; of the health-giving atmosphere that fills this valley ; 
of the marvellous springs, refreshing and life-giving, which break out 
from your mountain sides; of these marvellous and weird products of 
time that stand in the Garden of the Gods — of all this I had heard. 
But, my countrymen, no spring that ever broke from mountain side, no 
bracing air that ever filled these valleys was more refreshing and 
invigorating to the invalid or to the weary than your hearty greeting 
has been to us. [Cheers.] 

IN FORTY-TWO STATES. 

I visit your great State for the first time. When this journey has 
been completed only two of the States of the Union, and only its most 
distant territory will have escaped my personal inspection and obser- 
vation. From Maine to California, from the northern line of 
Michigan, where it is washed by the waters of the Sault Ste. Marie, 
to the Savannah, I have traversed this broad land of ours, and out 
of all this journeying, out of all this mingling with our people, I 
have come to be a prouder and, I hope, a better American. 
We have a country whose diversity of climate, soil and production 
makes it, in a degree not true of other people in the world, inde- 
pendent and self-contained. None of the necessaries of life, and few 
of its luxuries, would be denied to us if we were to limit ourselves to 
articles of American growth and production. [Cheers.] But better 
than all this, greater than our bulk, are those things that enter into 



125 

and characterize the American social and political life. A distin- 
guished Englishman journeying in this country not many years ago, 
speaking of his observations, rather caustically mentioned that the 
question most often propounded to him was whether he was not sur- 
prised by the great size of the country. He was a man of discern- 
ment, one who looked beneath the surface, who had learned to meas- 
ure the mighty impulses which turn the current of human civilization ; 
and rebuking this pride of bulk, he said : Yes, it was a surprise, but 
greater still to him was the surprise that over 60,0000,000 people 
could maintain and preserve under free Republican institutions 
the social order and individual liberty which was maintained here ; 
greater to him than bulk was the marvel that this great people could 
have survived and maintained its institutions under the terrible stress 
of the great civil war ; greater than all else to him was that unifica- 
tion of the people which seemed to follow that period of deadly strife. 
I rejoice to be with you to-night as an American citizen, I rejoice in 
the glory which the Centennial State has brought to the Union, and 
which it will greatly increase. [Cheers.] 

At Colorado Springs Mrs. McKee was presented with a live, 
milk-white lamb for Baby McKee. It was placed on the special 
train, but died before the party reached Washington. 



MAY 12— DENVER, COL. 

Denver made great preparations to receive the President, 
and a great crowd welcomed him on his arrival at the wonder- 
ful city of Colorado. The local committee of 200 met the train 
at the depot, and when the President appeared in the square in 
front of the station an immense ovation w^as given him. A 
procession was formed and the line entered the city under an 
immense arch, representing the business and mining interests of 
the city. The parade was an imposing and brilliant spectacle, 
and arriving at the grand stand the addresses of welcome 
were made. Governor Routt delivered the address of welcome 
to the State, and Mayor Rogers followed in a few words of 
welcome to the city. The President responded as follows : 



126 



THE CENTENNIAL STATE. 



Governor Routt, Mr. Mayor, Pioneers of Colorado. Comrades 
OF the Grand Army [cheers] and Fellow Citizens : This scene is 
inspiring. This beautiful city, the fame of which your journeying 
citizens have not failed to carry to the far East [laughter and cheers], 
has become known to me as we can know by the hearing of the ear ; 
and I am rejoiced to add to my pleasant impressions of Colorado, and 
of its commercial and political capital, that which is in sight of the eye, 
which has but deepened and enlarged the favorable impressions which 
I brought to your State. It is a marvellous thing that all we see here 
is in a State whose existence dates from the dawn of the second century 
of our national life. What a tremendous testimony to the organizing 
power and energy of the American people this State is ! That these 
wastes, so unpromising to the eye in that early time, should have been 
invaded by the restless energy of indomitable men ; that they should 
have seen in visions that which was to follow their heroic labor for the 
development of these hidden resources ; that no drought or drifting 
sand, no threat of mountain or of sky could turn back these brave- 
hearted men who had set their faces to pierce and uncover the hidden 
riches of these mountains. The pioneers of Colorado are worthy of 
honor. Those who have entered into their labors, who have come not 
to it slowly, but on swift and easy wings into the heritage that they have 
opened up should, always and everywhere, gratefully acknowledge the 
services of those who made this easy pathway for them. 

ALL the necessaries OF LIFE. 

Your State is blessed in the diversity of its resources. You do not 
depend on any one of the great industries of civilized life. You have 
taken from your mines stores of the precious metals, but when those 
are gone or their supply is diminished you will turn your eyes towards 
those metals that we call base, but that after all enter in so many ways 
into human life that they supply more enduring and in the end more 
profitable industries. Your iron, and coal, and lead, and building 
stone will be sources of income inexhaustible. These valleys, touched 
by the magical power of irrigation, will yield to your population abund- 
ant food, and you will have within yourselves that happy commercial 
condition of a State producing and exchanging within its own limits 
nearly all the necessaries of life. [Cheers.] Transportation is always 
a burden. The industrial-condition is always best when the producers 
and the consumers are near together. 

FUTURE citizens. 

I am glad to know that you have not been so busy in delving in 



127 

the earth, that you have not so turned your minds to the precious metal 
as to have forgotten that there is a blue sky above you ; that there are 
aspirations, and hopes, and glories that are greater than all material 
things. [Cheers.] You have not failed to make sure that the children, 
the blessed children of your homes that are now coming on, are made 
secure in their position of a well-endowed school system. [Cheers.] 
What a testimony it is to the American character that, however intense 
the push for the things of life, however eager the pursuit of gain, you 
can never assemble a community of two hundred people that do not 
begin to organize schools for the children. [Cheers.] These common 
schools are not simply nurseries of intellectual training ; they are 
nurseries of citizenship. [Cheers.] 

It has been a most happy sight to see the old banner that we bore 
into the smoke of battle and carried over dying comrades to place it in 
triumph on the ramparts of the enemy now in the hands of the children 
of Colorado. [Cheers.] Proof has been made a thousand times — proof 
will be made whenever the occasion requires — that as much as we 
pursue gain and personal ends, we have nothing — property or life — 
that we do not freely lay down upon the altar of our country for the 
general good. [Cheers.] But, my fellow citizens, thjs assemblage is 
too vast, and the demand upon my time for public speech has been too 
protracted, to enable me to pursue these remarks further. 

OUR UNDISPUTED EMBLEM. 

Comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic, survivors of the 
great war, whose success preserved all that our fathers had devised and 
established, whose success brought back this flag in honor and estab- 
lished it again the undisputed emblem of an indissoluble Union 
[cheers], God has bountifully lengthened out your days that you 
might have some glimpses of the glory that has come from the achieve- 
ments in which you bore an honorable part. But only the vision of 
the prophet can catch the full glory of what your deeds have 
wrought. I give you to-day a most affectionate greeting [cheers] ; I 
give you a regretful good-bye. May you hold in the community where 
you live that respect and honor to which you are entitled. Let no 
Grand Army man ever dishonor in civil life the noble record he made 
in war. May every blessing follow you, and if it shall not be in God's 
dispensation to give you riches, at least, comrades, you shall die with 
the glorious satisfaction of having contributed to the greatest work that 
man ever directed for humanity and good ; and, wrapped in the flag 
you followed, your comrades will, one by one, see that in honored 
graves your bodies rest until the resurrection, and that on each return- 
ing day of decoration flowers are strewn upon your graves. 



128 

Citizens of Denver, I cannot close without expressing the great 
satisfaction and surprise with which 1 have witnessed this morning the 
magnificent commercial developments which have been made here. 
These streets, these towering, substantial and stately houses in which 
your commerce is transacted, place you in the front rank of enterprise. 
I do not think any city so young can claim so high a place. [Cheers.] 
I thank you very sincerely for a demonstration which I cannot accept 
as personal — all this is too great for me — but as a spontaneous tribute 
to your free institutions. I accept these as an evidence that in all 
essential things we are one people ; and now again, good-bye. 1 shall 
leave behind me every good wish for your prosperity, individually, 
municipally, and as a State. [Cheers.] 

After a drive to Capital Hill the gentlemen of the party 
returned to the Metropole Hotel, where luncheon was served. 
In response to a toast by W. H. Bush, the President spoke as 
follows • 

ELEGANT HOMES. 

Gentlemen*: 1 cannot fail to respond to such a toast. Indeed, I 
should be unkind to you and to myself as well, if I did not. However, 
I cannot speak at length in thanking you for the gracious hospitality I 
have received in Denver. I can truly say my visit has culminated in 
Denver. For pleasure during my stay here, for perfection in arrange- 
ment, for cordiality, and all things which go to make a stop pleasant, 
Denver has given a climax of enjoyment. 

It has given me great pleasure to take note of some of the things 
which have made this beautiful city here and its recent and massive 
developments a wonder to the civilization of to-day. I am apt to judge 
the city by the home. That is with me the test, more than the business 
buildings, the manufactories, etc. It gives me great pleasure to state 
that in all my travels, and they have included all the States but two, I 
have never seen a city with such elegant homes as here. [Cheers.] 
I am sure, when you have worked out your silver mines and 
the more common products, stone and granite, you will have that 
which will last you for an indefinite time, and which will also add to 
the beauty of your already beautiful city. [Cheers.] 

I have the pleasure of testifying to the satisfaction with which the 
party has spent these few days in the Centennial State. I hope I may 
have the pleasure of being with you again at some near future time. 

I say good-bye, and again express our thanks for your hospitality, 
which has been excelled nowhere on our journey. [Cheers.] 



129 

While the gentlemen were lunching the ladies were escorted 
to the Governor's mansion where a reception was held, and fol- 
lowed by an organ recital at Trinity Methodist Church. Before 
leaving Denver the President visited the Argo Smelter. 

AKRON, COL. 

The President and party passed through Akron, Colorado, 
over the Burlington route, at 9.15 o'clock. The party were ac- 
companied by General Colby, commanding the Nebraska State 
Guards, and Colonel Griffith, the United States Aide-de-camp who 
brought the letter of welcome to the State of Nebraska to Presi- 
dent Harrison from Governor Thayer. There was a great crowd 
of people at the station, and when the President appeared on the 
rear platform he was greeted with loud cheering, and spoke as 
follows : 

NEBRASKA, 

My Friends : It is very kind of you to gather here to-night as 
we pass by. We have had a very pleasant trip. Our interest in your 
State and our appreciation of its great resources have been very much 
increased on this visit. I am glad to find — indeed, I knew I should 
find — the same people here that we have in Illinois, Indiana and 
Ohio. Most of you come from some of those States, and you are not 
new people. I have been very much pleased to notice that here, as 
well as in the East, you take deep interest in schools and in all those 
things that tend to elevate a community and to set social order on a 
firm and secure basis. Allow me to thank you again, and to bid you 
good-night. 

MAY 13— HASTINGS, NEB. 

As early as 6.30 o'clock in the morning the President was up 
and greeted the people of Hastings on his arrival at that point. 
Grand Army men, several local societies and school children 
mingled with the citizens and gave the President a most 
enthusiastic welcome. When the Chief Executive appeared on 



I30 

the rear platform he could not speak for several moments on 
account of the enthusiastic greeting. Finally he spoke as follows : 

THE LAND OF SHOWERS. 

My Fellow Citizens : There is great freshness and beauty 
about this early morning on the prairies of Nebraska, and I hope I will 
not suffer less in your esteem if I make the frank confession that I do 
not like to get up so early in the morning. [Laughter,] These things 
make the labor of travel, but they are nothing compared with the 
great gratification which we find in such assemblages. We have seen 
those parts of the United States where the distribution of the water 
supply, at least in its appHcation to the crops, is more in the hands of 
man than with you — the water coming in ditches and not in showers. 
That system has some advantages and some disadvantages, but hav- 
ing been reared in the land of showers, it seems more homelike to me 
to get back into the edge of these central States, where everything is 
green and fresh. This diversity of natural conditions and of agricul- 
tural and mineral wealth makes the greatness of our country. Diver- 
sity is found everywhere in nature, and it is a happy thing. 

It is another happy incident that these great diversities do not 
appear among our people. They are found in the fields and in the 
crops, but everywhere throughout this land any observing man can 
see that we are one people. [Applause.] The people I saw in Cali- 
fornia, in Arizona, and all along our journey were just such people as 
I see here ; indeed, they were, in a strict sense, the same people, be- 
cause they are Yankees — Pennsylvanians, Ohioans — the Ohio man, 
of course, is everywhere [laughter] — Wisconsin men and Hoosiers ; 
the Hoosier is pretty near everywhere, too. [Laughter.] The 
course of our immigration has been from the East until it has touched 
the Pacific ocean, and so anywhere the traveler may go, if he will 
make himself known, the hands of old neighbors will be stretched out 
to him. 

Out of this comes the love of the one flag, and I am glad to say 
to you that we have not passed any little station, even in Arizona, 
where a few scores had gathered from distant ranches, that the 
American flag was not in some one's hands and an American cheer 
for that flag. I recall one occasion that was almost pathetic in the 
darkness of the night in the loneliness of the great plain. We 
pulled up for a few moments at a water-station where a few men 
gathered about the station. Upon the lapels of a half-dozen coats I 
saw the Grand Army button. Said one of the men, '' Well, boys. 



131 

there are only a few of us, but let's give three cheers for the old 
flag." [Applause.] I thank you most cordially for gathering here 
this morning so early. 



FAIRMOUNT, NEB. 

Although the stop was short, the citizens of Fairmount 

gave the President a hearty welcome. He shook hands with a 

number, but only had time to say : 

My Friends : I have only time to thank you for this demonstra- 
tion at this early hour of the morning. 

CRETE, NEB. 

Governor Thayer, Lieut. Majors and all the State officers met 
the President at Crete. Gov. Thayer welcomed the President, 
and introduced him to the crowd at the depot. Mr. Harrison 
spoke as follows : 

A COMMON PURPOSE. 

My Friends: It appears sometimes in the heat of political 
campaigns that the American people do not agree upon anything ; 
but after it is all over we take a broader survey of things and we find 
that underneath all these divisions is the bed rock of patriotism. In 
that at least we have a common purpose. 

I am glad to see these children here this morning. They have 
greeted me everywhere with their happy smiles, and they brighten 
the way quite as much as the flowers that have been given us. It is 
pleasant to know that in these pioneer countries you are establishing 
common schools in order that the generation which is coming on 
may have a better chance than you had. I do not know of any- 
thing better than the father and mother working and striving that 
their children may have an easier and better chance in life than they 
had. I am very glad to see you all this morning, and thank you for 
your cordial welcome. 



132 

LINCOLN, NEB. 

A cordial welcome greeted the travelers at Lincoln, Nebraska, 
which was reached at 9 o'clock in the morning. The officers 
were escorted to the Capitol, where a formal address of welcome 
was made to the visitors by the Governor on behalf of the State 
and the Mayor for the citizens. The President was presented 
by the traveling men of Nebraska with an address of welcome 
embossed on satin, and also an illuminated address from the school 
children. The President, in reply, said : 

FRIENDS. 

We are here as American citizens, having common hopes and 
purposes. We are here, the friends of the flag, of the Constitution^ 
of social order, of free schools, of all that characterizes this nation and 
makes it different from and better than any other nation. [Applause.] 
I do most cordially thank you for this magnificent demonstration. It 
has but one fault, and that is it is altogether too large to be suitably 
arranged with a view to public speaking. I hope you will allow me 
to wish for you and your State a prosperity, and for the country of 
which we are common citizens, a career of unchecked glory. [Cheers.] 



VALPARAISO. NEB. 

A short stop was made at Valparaiso just before reaching 
Omaha, and the President, in response to cries for a speech, 
said : 

TOO MUCH FOR ANY MAN. 

My Friends : I am very much obliged to you for your cordial 
welcome. We pause but for a moment, and it will not be possible for 
me to make a speech. You are talking yourselves, and I am sure in 
very high tones of patriotism, by your display of the national colors 
in your own hands and in the hands of the school children, and by this 
welcome to one who for the time is placed at the head of the national 
government. I have not accepted what I have seen on this trip as 
personal ; it is too much for any man. I accept it as the expression 
of our people for the love of our flag and for the institutions which it 
svmbolizes. 



^33 

OMAHA, NEB. 

Omaha gave the President one of the most cordial and 
enthusiastic welcomes he received on his trip. The streets were 
crowded with people and handsomely decorated. The Presi- 
dent was greeted at the depot by a large committee of citizens, 
headed by Mayor Gushing and the city council. The party 
was escorted by an imposing parade, consisting of the Second 
Regiment of United States Infantr>% Omaha Guards and local 
societies, to the Court House, where a stand elaborately deco- 
rated was erected. Here, in reply to an address of welcome 
from Mayor Gushing, the President spoke as follows: 

PARTIES AND PATRIOTISM. 

Mr. Mayor and Fellow Citizens : I can accept without ques- 
tion and with very deep gratitude this cordial welcome which you 
have spoken on behalf of the people of this city. Twice it has been 
my pleasure to spend a short time in this ^reat commercial metropolis 
of the great valley of the Missouri. I have had an opportunity, there- 
fore, to witness the rapid development which your city has made, 
unsurpassed, I think, by the history of any city in the United States. 
[Applause.] 

As I turn my face now toward Washington ; as I hasten on to 
take up public duties partially laid aside during this journey, I rejoice 
to receive here in Omaha that same kindly greeting with which we 
were welcomed as we journeyed from Washington, through the South, 
to the Pacific coast. [Cheers.] If anything were needed to call for a 
perfect surrender of all personal thoughts, in absolute consecration to 
public duty, to the general good of all, I have found it in this magnifi- 
cent demonstration. [Cheers.] We shall always have parties ; it is 
characteristic of our people. We need to have parties, divisions, 
debate, political contention ; but it is pleasant to observe in all this 
journey we have taken how large a stock of common patriotism we 
find in all the people. [Cheers.] 

You have here in Nebraska a State of magnificent capabilities. 
I have seen the orange grove and all those fruits which enrich and 
characterize the State of California ; I have seen the summit cities, 
those mining camps on the peaks where the men are delving into the 
earth to bring out the riches stored there, but I return again to the 
land of the corn-stalk with an affection that I cannot describe. 



134 

I Cheers.] I am sure these friends who have delighted us with visions 
of loveliness and prosperity will excuse me if my birth and early 
training in Ohio and Indiana lead me to the conclusion that the 
States that raise corn are the greatest States in the world. [Cheers.] 

FOREIGN MARKETS. 

We have a surplus production in these great valleys for which we 
must seek foreign markets. It is pleasant to know that ninety per 
cent, or more of our agricultural productions are consumed by our 
people. I do not know^ how soon it may be that we shall cease to be 
dependent on any foreign market for our farm products. With the 
rapid development which is being made in manufacturing pursuits, 
with the limitation which the rapid occupation of our public domain 
will put upon the increase of agriculture, it cannot be a very distant 
day when the farmer shall realize the ideal condition and find a market 
out of his Own farm-wagon for what he produces. It has been a source 
of constant thought and zealous effort on the part of the administra- 
tion at Washington to secure larger foreign markets for our farm 
products. 

I rejoice that in the last two years some of the obstructions which 
hindered the free access of our meat products to foreign markets have 
been removed. I rejoice to know that we have now freer and larger 
access for our meats in the markets of England and of Europe than 
we have had in many years. I rejoice to know that this has brought 
better prices to the stock-raisers of these great western valleys. I 
believe, under the provisions looking to reciprocal trade in the law of 
the last Congress, that we shall yet open larger and new markets for 
Nebraska farms. [Cheers.] So distant are you from the Atlantic sea- 
board, it may have seemed tu you that 3'our interest in the revival of 
our trade, in the re-establishment of our merchant marine, was not 
possible. Not long since an inquiry was made of the freight that was 
carried by one of the Brazilian steamers from the port of New York. 
It was found that twenty-five States had made contributions, and 
among those States was the State of Nebraska [cheers] ; and so, by 
such methods as we can, it is our purpose to enlarge our foreign 
markets for the surplus productions of our great country, and we have 
hope — and I think this hope fills the West as well as the East — that 
when this increased traffic and commerce is found upon the sea it 
shall be carried in American bottoms. [Cheers.] I hopethe day is 
not far distant when the sight of great American ships, flying the stars 
and stripes at the fore, will be familiar not only in our ports, but in 
every busy mart of commerce the world over. [Cheers.] 



135 

AN HONEST DOLLAR. 

This government of ours Ccinnot do everything for everybody. 
The theory of our government is large individual liberty. It is that 
we shall take out of the way all legislative obstructions to the free, 
honest pursuit of all human industries ; that each individual shall, in 
his own place, have the best chance possible to develop the highest 
prosperity for himself and his family. Some functions are lodged 
with our government. It must provide a currency for the use of our 
people, for I believe the time has gone by when we will be content to 
return to the old system of an issue of money by State banks. But I 
will not discuss such questions. I only desire to say this, which is 
common ground upon which we can all stand, that whatever money 
the government issues, paper or coin, it must be good money. [Cheers.] 
I have an idea that every dollar we issue should be as good as any 
dollar we issue ; for, my countrymen, paper or coin, the first errand it 
does is to pay some workingman for his daily toil. None so much as 
the laboring man and the farmer require a full value dollar of perma- 
nent value the year round. [Cheers.] I hope I have not intruded 
upon any ground of division. I am talking not as a partisan, but as 
an American citizen, desiring by every method to enhance the pros- 
perity of our people [cheers], and have this great government, in all 
its undertakings, touch with beneficent and equal hands the pursuits 
of the rich and of the poor. [Cheers.] 

Nothing has been so impressive in all this journey as the magnifi- 
cent spirit of patriotism which pervades our people. I have seen 
enough American flags to wrap the world around. [Cheers.] The 
school children have waved it joyously everywhere, and many a 
time in some lonesome country home on the bleak sand I have seen 
a man, or a woman, or a little boy, come to the door of the cabin as 
we hurried by and wave the starry banner in greeting to our train. 
[Cheers.] I am sure, as your Mayor has said, that this magnificent 
patriotic American spirit pervades you all here. God bless you all ; 
prosper you in every endeavor ; give glory and increase to your city, 
and settle all its institutions upon a secure basis of social order and 
obedience to the law. [Great cheering.] 

A reception then took place in the rotunda of the Bee 
building, where the President shook hands with several thou- 
sand people. A drive through the city followed. The President 
rode with Mayor Gushing and Major Sanger ; Governor Thayer 
rode witn Mrs. Harrison in the second carriage, and Governor 



136 

Boyd rode with Mr. and Mrs. Russell B. Harrison in the fifth car- 
riage. At the High School nearly 12,000 children were gathered 
to greet the Chief Magistrate. They sang national airs, and the 
President mistaking the 10,000 adults for the 12,000 school children 
addressed a few words to the adults, but finding his mistake 
alighted from his carriage and made his way through the 
crowd to the platform in front of the children and addressed 
them as follows : 

HUMAN BLOSSOMS. 

My Little Friends : You do not feel half as badly as I do at 
the thought that I made a speech intended for you to your papas and 
mammas. I have not the time to attempt to repeat it ; but I cannot 
go away without telHng you of the affectionate interest I have in all 
the children of this great country. Bless you — you are the blossoms 
of our homes. With a good-bye, another God bless you, and I am off. 

After the reception a luncheon was served at ex- Governor 
Saunders's residence, and the party went to the depot at 5 
o'clock and left for the East. 

COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA. 

A short stop was made at Council Bluffs where a large num- 
ber of veterans awaited the arrival of the President. He received 
a hearty reception, and in response to calls for a speech, spoke as 
follows : 

TO THE GRAND ARMY. 

My Friends: It gives me great pleasure to thank you for this 
cordial greeting as we cross the river. I was not anticipating a 
meeting here or any call for an address. I see about me some of 
my old comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic, and I want to 
give them a comrade's greeting. I have seen them everywhere, even 
out on the sands of Arizona I found them gathered together, and it 
has always been a pleasure to meet them. 



137 
SHENANDOAH, IOWA. 

Arriving at Shenandoah at 8 o'clock, the President was 

greeted by a saUite from the Rifle Guards, and in the Ught of 

a large bonfire the President made the following remarks to the 

throng assembled : 

My Friends: It gives me great pleasure to see you and to re- 
ceive from you this hearty greeting. Our schedule is so close that 
we can tarry only a moment with you, and therefore I can only say 
thank you and good-bye. 

MARYSVILLE, MO. 

As Marysville was the only stop the President was to make 
in that part of Missouri, crowds came from all parts of the 
country, and when the train arrived at ii o'clock, one of 
the largest gatherings seen in a small village during the tour 
greeted the President with tremendous cheers and firing of can- 
non. The President appeared on the rear platform and addressed 
the crowd in the following words : 

A MAGNIFICENT DEMONSTRATION. 

My Friends: This multitude is a great surprise. I have al- 
ready spoken six or seven times to-day, and am very much fatigued 
so that I shah not attempt to speak. Indeed, my time is so close 
that I can tarry but a moment. But I would be untrue to myself if 
I did not acknowledge this most magnificent demonstration. I 
thank you most sincerely for your kindness and bid you good-night. 

MAY 14— HANNIBAL, MO. 

The bright spring sun shone on the seven hills of Hannibal, 
Missouri, when the Presidential train entered that city. Bands 
were playing "Hail to the Chief," but the shouts of the 
thousands drowned the music, and even the noise of steam whistles 
was almost lost amid the cheers. The President appeared on the 
rear platform of his car and addressed the people as follows : 



'38 

THANKS TO THE CHILDREN. 

My Fellow Citizens : I have only time to assure you that I 
appreciate very highly this evidence of your respect. We have ex- 
tended our journey to the Pacific coast ; we have crossed the sandy 
plain, where for days together the eye saw little to refresh it, where 
the green of the blue grass that is so restful to the eye was wanting, 
and yet again and again at some lone station in the desert a few chil- 
dren from a school and some of the enterprising people who had 
pushed out there to make new homes, assembled with this old banner 
in their hands and gave us a hearty American welcome. I am glad to 
return to this central body of States in which I was raised ; glad to be 
again in the land of the buckeye, the beech and the maple. To 
these dear children I want to say one word of thanks. They have 
done for us much on this journey to make it pleasant ; their bright 
faces have cheered us ; I love to see them. The care the States are 
taking for their education is wisely bestowed. God bless them all ; 
open to their feet pleasant ways and qualify them better than we 
have been in our generation, to uphold and perpetuate these magnifi- 
cent civil institutions. Thanking you most sincerely for this kindly 
demonstration I bid you good-bye. [Great cheers.] 

SPRINGFIELD, ILL. 

Several short stops were made at Barry, Baylis, Griggsville, 
and Jacksonville, but no speeches were made until the Presiden- 
tial party reached Springfield, Illinois. Here a most pleasant 
hour was spent. Governor Fifer, Mayor Lawrence, Senators 
Cullom and Palmer, Representatives Springer and Henderson, 
Collector Clark of Chicago, ex-Governor Oglesby and Col. K. D. 
Swain were among those of the committee to greet the visitors 
on their arrival. The local militia and Grand Army escorted 
the party through the gaily decorated streets past the State 
Capitol, to the Lincoln Monument at Oak Ridge Cemetery. Here 
the formal ceremonies took place. Mayor Lawrence presided and 
Governor Fifer delivered the address of welcome, to which the 
President responded, sa^dng : 

AT LINCOLN'S TOMB. 

Governor Fifer and Fellow Citizens : During this extended 
journey, in the course of which we have swept from the Atlantic 



139 

coast to the Golden Gate, and northward to the limits of our territory, 
we have stood in many spots of interest and looked upon scenes that 
were full of historical associations, and of national interest and inspira- 
tion. The interest of this journey culminates to-day as we stand 
here for a few moments about the tomb of Lincoln. As I 
passed through the Southern States and noticed those great centres 
of busy industry which had been builded since the war ; as I saw how 
the fires of furnaces had been kindled where there was once a solitude, 
I could not then but think and say that it was the hand that now lies 
beneath these stones that kindled and inspired all that we beheld ; all 
these fires of industry were lighted at the funeral pyre of slavery. The 
proclamation of Abraham Lincoln can be read on all those mountain 
sides where free men are now bending their energies to the develop- 
ment of States that had long been under the paralysis of human 
slavery. 

A SACRED SPOT. 

I come to-day to this consecrated and sacred spot with a heart 
filled with emotions of gratitude that that God, who wisely turned 
towards our Eastern shores a body of God-fearing and liberty-loving 
men to found this Republic, did not fail to find for us in the hour of 
our extremity one who was competent to lead the hearts and sym- 
pathies, and hold up the courage of our people in the time of our 
greatest national peril. 

The life of Abraham Lincoln teaches more useful lessons than 
any other character in American history. Washington stands 
remote from us. We think of him as dignified and reserved, but we 
think of Lincoln as one whose tender touch the children, the poor — 
all classes of our people — felt at their firesides and loved. The love 
of our people is drawn to him because he had such a great heart — 
such a human heart. The asperities and hardships of his early life 
did not dull, but broadened and enlivened his sympathies. That 
sense of justice, that love of human liberty which dominated all his 
life, is another characteristic that our people will always love. 

You have here in keeping a most precious trust. Toward this 
spot the feet of the reverent patriots of the years to come will bend 
their way. As the story of Lincoln's life is read his virtues will 
mold and inspire many lives. 

LINCOLN'S GREATNESS. 

I have studied it and have been filled with wonder and admira- 
tion. His life was an American product ; no other soil could have 
produced it. The greatness of it has not yet been fully discovered 



140 

or measured. As the inner history of the times in which he lived is 
written we find how his great mind turned and moved, in time of 
peril and delicacy, the affairs of our country in their home and 
foreign relations with that marvellous tact, with that never-faihng 
common sense which characterized this man of the people. And 
that impressive lesson we have here this morning. I see in the mili- 
tary uniform of our country, standing as guards about this tomb, the 
sons of a race that had been condemned to slavery and was eman- 
cipated by his immortal proclamation. And what an appropriate 
thing it is that these whose civil rights were curtailed even in this 
State are now the trusted, affectionate guards of -the tomb in which 
he sleeps. 

We will all again and again read the story of Lincoln's life, and 
will find our hearts and minds enlarged, our loves and our charities 
broadened, and our devotion to the Constitution, the flag and the free 
government which he preserved to us, intensified. And now, my 
friends, most cordially do I thank you for these kind words of 
welcome. I shall go from this tomb impressed with new thoughts as 
to the responsibilities of those who bear the responsibilities, though 
in less troublous times, of that great man to whose memory my 
soul bows this morning. [Applause.] 

Wheu the President finished, Governor Fifer, on behalf of 
the citizens of Petersburg, Illinois, presented to the Bresident 
a gold-headed cane made from the Lincoln Star building at New 
Salem. When the President again arrived at the State House a 
large crowd greeted him, and in response to calls for a speech, 
he addressed them as follows : 

SPRINGFIELD A MECCA. 

The demand for my presence in Washington is such that I can- 
not protract my stay with you here this morning. I beg all to be- 
lieve that most heartily and sincerely I thank you for this cordial 
welcome from Illinois ; for the interesting moments that we have 
spent about the tomb of that man who would have made the fame of 
Illinois imperishable and Springfield a Mecca for patriotic feet if not 
another man in the history of the State had come to eminence — 
Abraham Lincoln. [Cheers.] In his life you have a treasury of 
instruction for your children, a spring of inspiration for your people 
that will be lasting. [Cheers.] 



141 

DECATUR, ILL. 

A most enthusiastic reception awaited the President at 
Decatur. It was 11.30 o'clock when the train reached that city, 
and only a ten minutes' stop was made. Mayor Chambers and 
a committee of citizens met the President at the station and 
escorted him to a stand near by, where the President made the 
following address : 

THE LAND OF BLUE GRASS. 

Mr. Mayor and Fellow Citizens : The land of bkie grass is 
the land of my love. Nowhere can there be seen fairer landscapes, 
nowhere richer farms, than here in your own great State of Illinois — a 
State whose history has been one of illustrious achievements made 
great in peace and in war by her illustrious sons ; a State whose 
population is intelligent, contented, orderly and liberty-loving ; a 
State whose developments have not yet begun to approach their possi- 
ble limits ; a State having advantages of location, bordered by the 
lakes and swept as it is by two of the great waterways of the conti- 
nent — advantages of access to markets by lake, and rail, and river 
unexcelled by that of any other State in the Union ; a State that has 
not forgotten that the permanence of our free institutions depends 
upon the intelligence of the people and has carefully, at the very be- 
ginning, laid a foundation for a common school system by which 
every man's child may have a free education. [Applause.] Those 
are not simply nurseries of intelligence, but, as I have said before, 
they are schools of statesmanship. They tend more than any other 
public institution to make our people one people. Here on these 
benches (pointing to the children) and in these play-grounds the peo- 
ple of the rich and poor mingle together, and the pampered son gets 
his airs rubbed off by contact with his vigorous playmates. [Cheers.] 

TUSCOLA, ILL. 

A great crowd assembled at the depot and welcomed the 

Presidential train by tremendous shouting and blowing of 

whistles. The President had only time to address the people, 

saying : 

universal friendliness. 

My Fellow Citizens : It is very kind of you to assemble here 
in such large numbers to extend to us a greeting as we hurry through 



I42 

your beautiful State. We can tarry with you but for a moment, for 
we are in true sense pilgrims. It is pleasant to look in your faces 
and to read there the same kindly thoughts and the same friendli- 
ness that seems to have covered this whole land as we have jour- 
neyed through it. I do not like to say anything anywhere that 
makes a line of division ; for I know that these assemblages are without 
regard to politics, and that men of all parties have extended to us a 
cordial greeting. The flag, the institutions, and the general good of our 
people are themes which we appreciate, are themes which we honor, 
though we may approach them on different lines. I am glad to 
notice as I journey through your State the evidences of a coming 
harvest that I hope will be bountiful. Wishing for you every good, I 
bid you good-bye. 

CHRISMAN, ILL. 

Althougli the stop at Chrisman was very short, the Presi- 
dent received a hearty w^elcome, and in response to a demand for 
a speech, spoke as follows : 

THE PEOPLE THE MOST CAPABLE GOVERNORS. 

My Friends : I have but one message for all these vast assem- 
blies of my fellow citizens who have been greeting us for something 
more than a month at every point where we have stopped. That 
message is to thank you for all these greetings and for the friendliness 
which shines in your faces. I am glad this is a government by the 
people because they are the most capable governors that can be 
found. No man can traverse this country, as I have done, from the 
Potomac to the Golden Gate, and from the Golden Gate to the cities 
that open on Puget Sound, to the great North Sea, and can look into 
the faces of these people that come from every pursuit, without, feel- 
ing that this government, raised upon the bulwark of patriotism, is, 
by God's goodness, a perpetual institution. The patriotism of our 
people, their unselfish love for the flag, the great good nature with 
which they lay aside all sharp party divisions and come together un- 
der one banner, is very gratifying to us all. Our trip has been 
attended by many incidents that have been full of pleasure and some- 
times full of pathos. 

THE STARRY BANNER EVERYWHERE. 

We have never lost sight of the starry banner in all this journey. 
Sometimes out on the Great American Desert, as it used to be called, 



143 

where nothing but the sage brush gave evidence of the power of 
nature to clothe the earth, from a little dug-out, where some man had 
set out to make a home for himself, would float the starry banner. 
Comrades of the Grand Army, I have never stopped, even at the 
most lonely hamlet on the continent, but some comrade would reach 
up his hand to greet me. I am glad to see you in this great State. I 
am glad to see these children. May God bless them. Thanking you 
for your heartiness and friendliness I bid you good-bye. 



MONTEZUMA, IND. 

The Presidential train crossed the State line into Indiana at 
at 3 o'clock on Thursday afternoon, and reaching Monte- 
zuma, the President was met by a large delegation from Indian- 
apolis, composed of Governor Hovey and staff and a large 
number of prominent Indianians of both parties. The Governor 
welcomed the President to the State with a shake of the hand 
and a word of greeting. Ex -Congressman James T. Johnston 
introduced the President to the crowd in a brief sentence to the 
effect that he needed no introduction to the people that knew 
him so well. When General Harrison stepped forward to make 
his speech the cheers and applause were deafening. The greeting 
seemed to touch him greatly. His voice was choked with 
emotion, and so low that his words were scarcely audible. He 
said : 

HOME, SWEET HOME. 

My Friends : We have had a long journey, and one that has 
been attended by a great many pleasant incidents. We have had 
cheers of welcome, reaching from our first stop at Roanoke, Va., 
stretching across the mountains of Tennessee and Northern Georgia 
and Alabama, down through Arkansas and Texas, and along the 
Pacific coast. Everywhere we have had the most cordial and hearty 
greeting ; but, as I cross to-day the border line of Indiana, and meet 

again these old friends, I find in your welcome (Here his voice 

failed entirely, and tears glistened beneath his eyes. He paused a 
moment to regain his self-control, and finished the sentence.) — I find 
in your welcome a sweetness that exceeds it all. 



144 

He could say no more. The tears were coming freely now, 
and he had to turn his head for a moment to recover himself. 
He turned about in a moment smiling and happy and spent the 
remaining ten minutes of the stop in shaking hands with the 
people who crowded about the platform. 

INDIANAPOLIS, IND. 

The home coming of the President w^as one of the most 
touching of all the demonstrations he received throughout this 
wonderful journey . It was 4.45 o'clock in the afternoon when the 
train reached Indianapolis, and its approach was heralded by a 
salute fired by Battery A, Light Infantry. The entire city 
seemed to be one blaze of decoration, and large-sized portraits of 
the President were conspicuous everywhere. The crowd, in cheer 
after cheer, gave the President a genuine Hooiser w^elcome, and 
on the arrival at the stand in Jackson Place the multitude cheered 
so long that it was several minutes before the Governor could de- 
liver his address of welcome. At last Governor Hovey intro- 
duced the President in the following words : 

GOVERNOR HOVEY'S WELCOME. 

Ladies and Gentlemen • Benjamin Harrison, President of the 
United States, needs no introduction to the citizens of IndianapoHs 
or the people of Indiana. His name is on every tongue, and has 
been for years. Returning from his brilHant southwestern tour we 
welcome him with pride and pleasure to his home, and trust that he' 
may have a safe and pleasant trip to Washington. 

At the conclusion of the Governor's remarks Mayor Sullivan 

welcomed the President on behalf of the citizens. President 

Harrison responded, and at times was visibly affected. At two or 

three stages his voice and eyes clearly betrayed the emotion he felt 

at the heartiness of his welcome. Never had he spoken with more 

simple feeling than in this address to the friends and to the people 

who are a part of his home. He said : 



145 

THE ONE RULING THOUGHT. 

Governor Hovey, Mayor Sullivan and Friends: I do not 
think I can speak much to-day. The strain of this long journey, the 
frequent calls that have been made upon me to speak to my fellow 
citizens from Washington to the Golden Gate ; from the Golden 
Gate to the Strait of Fuca, and from the most northwestern portion 
of our territory here to my own home, has left me somewhat exhausted 
in body and in mind, and has made my heart so open to these im- 
pressions, as I greet my old home friends, that I cannot, I fear, com- 
mand myself sufficiently to speak to you at any length. Our path 
has been attended by the plaudits of multitudes ; our way has been 
strewn with flowers ; we have journeyed through the orchards of 
California, laden with its golden fruit ; we have climbed to the sum- 
mit of great mountains and have seen those rich mines from which 
the precious metals are extracted ; we have dropped again suddenly 
into fruitful valleys, and our pathway has been made glad by the 
cheerful and friendly acclaim of our American fellow citizens without 
regard to any party division [applause]; but I beg to assure you 
that all the sweetness of the flowers that have been showered 
upon us, that all the beauty of these almost tropical landscapes 
upon which we have looked, that all the richness of these precious 
mines sink into forgetfulness as I receive to-day this welcome 
from my old friends. [Great applause.] My manhood has known 
no other home but this. It was the scene of my early struggles ; it 
has been the scene, and you have been the instruments and support- 
ers in every success I have achieved in life. I come to lay 
before you to-day my thankful offering for your friendly helpfulness 
that was extended to me as a boy and that has been mine in all the 
years of our intercourse that have intervened until this hour. [Ap- 
plause.] I left you a little more than two years ago to take up the 
work of the most responsible office in the world. I went to these 
untried duties sustained by your helpful friendliness. I come to you 
again after these two years of public office to confess many errors, 
but to say to you that I have had but one thought in my mind. It 
was to use whatever influence had been confided to me for the general 
good of all our people. [Applause.] Our stay to-day is so brief that 
I must deny myself the pleasure I would have in taking these old 
friends by the hand. God bless you all. I have not forgotten, I can 
never forget, Indianapolis. [Prolonged applause.] I look forward to 
it, if my life shall be spared, as the city in which I shall rest when the 
hard work of life is done. I rejoice in its increase, in its development 
as a commercial centre. I love its homes, its people ; and now if you 

10 



140 

will pardon me the effort of further speech and believe me when I say 
this is a most interesting and tender moment to me, allow me to say 
to you for a time, God bless you every one and good-bye. [Cheers.] 

RICHMOND, IND. 

It was 7.15 o'clock at night when the President reached 
Richmond, Indiana, where a royal reception awaited him. Mayor 
Freeman and Representative Johnson, with the local committee, 
welcomed the President. In response to calls for a speech, Mr. 
Harrison spoke as follows : 

THE FRIENDSHIP AND RESPECT OF INDIANIANS. 

My Fellow Citizens : We are now about completing a very 
long journey. For something more than four weeks we have been 
speeding across the country, from the Potomac to the Golden Gate, 
and northward along Puget Sound. The trip, while it has been full 
of pleasurable incidents ; while it has been attended with every 
demonstration of friendliness and respect, has, as you can well under- 
stand, been full of labor. I began this day — and it is only a sample 
of many — at 5 o'clock this morning, by speaking to my fellow citizens 
at Hannibal, Mo., and from that place to this I have been almost 
continuously on my feet or shaking hands over this platform with 
friends who had gathered there. We have seen regions that were 
new to me ; people that were strangers, and yet, throughout the whole 
of this journey we have been pervaded, surrounded, inspired by the 
magnificent spirit of American patriotism. [Cheers.] I come now 
to pass through my own State. I have so often within the last two 
years been at Indianapolis and passed through Richmond that I did 
not expect you would take any special notice of our passage to-night. 
I am all the more gratified you should have surprised us by this mag- 
nificent demonstration. As I had occasion to say at Indianapolis, 
the respect, the confidence, the affectionate interest of my Indiana 
friends is more valuable to me than anything else in life. I went from 
you two years ago to new duties, borne down with a sense of the great 
responsibility that was upon me, and I am glad to believe from what I 
see to-night that I have at least saved the respect and friendship of my 
Indiana fellow citizens. [Cries of " That's so," and cheers.] And 
now, as I return again to labors and duties that are awaiting me, I 
leave with you my most affectionate greeting and sincere desire for the 
prosperity of Indiana and all its citizens. I hope that my life will be 
spared to be once more a dweller in this great State. [Cheers.] 



147 

DAYTON, OHIO. 

Dayton, Ohio, was reached at 9 o'clock on Thursday 
night, and although the President had had a hard day of speak- 
ing, he seemed to be as fresh as in the morning. There was 
an immense crowd at the depot, including Grand Army men 
and other local organizations. An electric light hung directly 
over the rear platform of the observation car where General Har- 
rison stood, and this gave everybody a splendid view of the 
President as he addressed the crowd in the following words : 

OHIO, THE MOTHER OF REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTS. 

My Fellow Citizens : We have journeyed now about nine 
thousand miles, and I have never been, in all this distance, out of 
sight of an Ohio man. [Laughter and cheers.] Everywhere we 
have journeyed, whether in the new South, awakening under the new 
influences of freedom to an industrial life that was not possible under 
slavery ; whether on the deserts of Arizona or among the orange 
groves of California, or in one of those wonderful States that have 
been builded within the last few years on Puget Sound, some one, 
noting the fact that I was Ohio born, would claim kinship, and so 
far as I could judge, in my limited observation of them, I think they 
carried the Ohio faculty with them to their new homes of getting 
their fair share of things. [Laughter and cheers.] I do most cor- 
dially thank you, citizens of Dayton, for this pleasant and friendly 
demonstration. I cannot talk long. This whole journey has been a 
succession of speeches. I have come to think it must be tiresome to you 
to have one of my speeches every morning with your breakfast coffee. 
[Cries of " No, no," and applause.] But it has been a most cheerful 
thing to me to observe everywhere, even in those distant and sparsely 
settled regions of the West, that the American flag was never out of 
sight. I do not think I have ever lost sight of the stars and stripes 
since we left Washington. [Cheers.] Several times we have been 
deeply touched as we moved along over the sandy plains to see at 
some isolated and very humble cabin a man or child step to the door 
and unfurl the starry banner. [Cheers.] Everywhere I have met 
comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic, everywhere the at- 
mosphere seemed to be pervaded by a magnificent spirit of Ameri- 
canism. [Cheers.] We are one people, one in our purposes, aims 
and lives, one in our fealty to the flag, the Constitution and the indis- 
soluble Union of the States. [Cheers.] 



148 

Ohio has ahvays maintained a magnificently conspicuous place in 
the sisterhood of the States, peopled, as she was, by the great patri- 
ots of the Revolutionary period, receiving, as she did, in this great 
basin that overspill of patriotism that moved toward the West after 
the Revolutionary struggle was ended. She has given to the govern- 
ment in army life and in the civil service a magnificent galaxy of 
great men. [Cheers.] In the hope that this journey, which has 
been full of toil, may not prove unprofitable to the people, as it cer- 
tainly has not been unprofitable to me, I leave you to take up my 
public duties with new encouragement and new resolves to do the 
best I can for all the people. 

XENIA, OHIO. 

At five minutes of lo o'clock the train, promptly on time, 
reached Xenia, Ohio. A large crowd greeted the President, and 
in addressing the crowd he said : 

GOVERNMENT BEGINS AT HOME. 

I began my day's work at 5 o'clock and have already made ten 
speeches, but I feel that a few spoken words are but small return to 
those who have gathered to express their friendly regard. No man 
is worthy to hold office in this Republic who does not sincerely 
covet the good will and respect of the people. The people may not 
agree in their views on public questions, but while they have a great 
many points of difference they have more of agreement, and I be- 
lieve we are all pursuing the same great end — the glory of our 
country, the permanency of our institutions and the general good of 
our people. The springs of all good government — the most important 
things after all — are in the local communities. In the townships, 
school districts and municipalities, there the utmost care should be 
taken. If their affairs are wisely and economically administered 
those of the State and the nation are sure to be. Upon these foun- 
dation stones the safety of the nation rests, and I am glad to know 
that so much careful thought is being given to these questions by 
public men and the people generally. Thanking you for your attend- 
ance and cordial greeting I bid you good night. 

COLUMBUS, OHIO. 

Although it was nearly midnight, a large and enthu- 
siastic crowd greeted the President at Columbus, Ohio. The 



T49 

party had not retired, and in response to cries for a speech the 
President appeared on the rear platform, and amid cheers had only 
time to speak these few words before the train left : 

My Fellow Citizens : I left Hannibal, Mo., this morning at 6 
o'clock, and have made twelve speeches to-day. You have been very 
thoughtful to meet us here, and I know you will excuse me if I say 
nothing more than I thank you. Good-night. [Applause.] 



MAY 15— ALTOONA, PENN. 

The last day of the eventful trip began with a speech at 
Altoona, Pa. It was nearly 10 o'clock before the train 
reached the city, but it was none too soon, for the President 
and party needed rest after the fatigue of the day before. A 
large crowd at the station demanded a speech, and the Presi- 
dent spoke as follows : 

THE CROWNING JOY OF ALL TRAVEL. 

My friends, I have been talking so much on this trip that I am 
sure you will excuse me this morning. We have had a most delight- 
ful journey, and yet we are experiencing perhaps that which is the 
crowning joy of all travel — coming back home. That is the best 
thing at last. I am glad to have this greeting from my Pennsylvania 
friends this morning.- Mr. Wanamaker was not far wrong when he 
said that after Indiana, Pennsylvania was pretty close to me. It was 
in one of these valleys, not far distant from your political capital, 
that my mother was born and bred, and of course this State and 
this section of Pennsylvania have always had a very strong inter- 
est for me. 

At this moment the President's voice was drowned by three 
successive immense steam exhausts from a neighboring machine 
shop which took the place of applause from the crowd. After 
which the President remarked that the applause that he had re- 
ceived on this journey had taken very many forms, but that this 
was the most original of all, and the remark was greeted by loud 
cheering. 



HARRISBURG, PENN. 

The trip from Altoona to Harrisburg was through the 
picturesque Juniata Valley, and when the President arrived at 
Harrisburg the entire party were greatly refreshed. At this 
place Postmaster-General Wanamaker took leave of the party and 
boarded the train for New York. When the Presidential train 
arrived at the depot, cannon began booming and the crowd 
cheered lustily. Governor Pattison and members of the I^egis- 
lature and other State officials were among the first to greet 
the President. The Governor welcomed the President and in- 
troduced him to the crowd, and the President spoke as fol- 
lows : 

THE PERFECT UNITY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Governor Pattison and Fellow Citizens : I thank you for 
the courtesy of this reception at the political centre of the great State 
of Pennsylvania. I was informed, a little while ago, by the stenog- 
rapher who had accompanied me on this trip, that I had made 138 
speeches, and when I saw the magnitude of my offense against the 
American people I was in hopes I would be permitted to pass through 
Harrisburg without adding anything to it. I will only express my 
thanks and appreciation. No one needs to tell you anything about 
Pennsylvania or its resources ; indeed, my work was very much 
lightened on this journey because I found that all the people clear out 
to Puget Sound had already found out more about their country than 
I could possibly tell them. 

It is a pleasant thing that we appreciate our surroundings. We 
love our own home, our own neighborhood, our own State. It would 
be a sad thing if it were not so. There is only just enough disconten 
to keep our people moving a little. Now and then some boy gets 
restless in the homestead and pushes out to the West ; the result is a 
thorough mingling of the people. I do not know what would have 
become of Pennsylvania if some people from other States had not 
come in and some of your people gone out. It is this that makes the 
perfect unity of our country. It was delightful on our trip to meet 
old faces from home. Though they had apparently been discontented 
with Indiana and left it, they were willing to recall the fact, as I came 
near to them, that they were Hoosiers. It was ver>^ pleasant, also, 
to see people as they met the Postmaster-General, put up their hands 



151 

and say : "I am from the old Keystone State." General Rusk was 
never out of sight of a Winconsin man, and, of course, the Ohio man 
was always there. [Laughter and applause.] Our journey has been 
accompanied with the labor of travel, but out of it all I think I have 
a higher sense of the perfect unity of our people and of their enduring, 
all-pervading patriotism. [Cheers.] 



BALTIMORE TO WASHINGTON. 

A short stop was made at Baltimore, and on the way between 
that city and Washington the President gathered together his 
whole party, including the railroad employees and servants on 
the train, and made them an address which closed his long series 
of remarkable and wonderful speeches. 

WONDERFUL RAILWAY MANAGEMENT. 

He referred to the unprecedented excellence and perfection of 
the railroad service throughout the entire trip, and said that the 
fact that they had been able to travel over 10,000 miles of terri- 
tory in a splendidly equipped train without an accident or mishap 
of any kind and without one minute's variance from the prear- 
ranged schedule must always be regarded as a most remarkable 
achievement. He said that Mr. Geo. W. Boyd, of the Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad, was entitled to great credit for his excellent 
management of the trip, and he added that it was a superb exhi- 
bition of what training, energy and intelligence could do for a 
man. He then returned his thanks individually to the conductors, 
the engineer and firemen, the chef and his assistants, the brake- 
men, the waiters and porters, and, in fact, every person who had 
rendered service to the party on the trip. Every one was pleased 
at the President's complimentary allusions, and when he closed 
all pressed forward to shake his hand. 

The train was greeted at Washington by quite a large crowd 
of officials, friends and newspaper men. Among the first to greet 



152 

the President was The Mail and Expressman, who had 
traveled in advance of the train over the entire route, leaving 
Washington before the party, visiting each town in advance, 
greeting the party on their arrival, leaving again and going ahead 
to prepare the way for the President. He reached Washington 
three hours before the train. There was no formal speech-making 
or welcome at the Baltimore & Potomac Depot, but the President 
was greeted by Secretaries Foster and Proctor and Attorney- 
General Miller, besides many friends. His first greeting was to 
Baby McKee and his little sister. The train arrived thirty sec- 
onds ahead of the time which was scheduled — 5.30 o'clock, p.m. 
In less than five minutes the entire party were homeward bound, 
and the train was left alone, dust-stained and travel- worn, to tell 
its tale of the great ten thousand mile journey. 




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